caracole

See also: caracolé

English

Etymology

Borrowed from French caracole (noun, literally “snail's shell”), caracoler (verb).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈkæɹəkəʊl/

Noun

caracole (plural caracoles)

1. A half-turn performed by a horse and rider in dressage.
2. (cavalry) A combat maneuver where riders of the same squadron turn simultaneously to their left or to their right.
   • 1866, Henry Howard Brownell, “Abraham Lincoln (Summer, 1865)”, in War-Lyrics and Other Poems, Boston: Ticknor and Fields, page 127:

     How the chargers neigh and champ, / (Their riders weary of camp,) / With curvet and with caracole!

In the 16th century, it referred to a tactic in which ranks of cavalry armed with pistols would make a slow gallop parallel to the enemy line. Each rank would then make a half-turn towards the enemy formation, discharge their pistols, move to the rear rank to reload, and then rejoin the formation to repeat the process. If the enemy formation was sufficiently weakened or broke ranks, the cavalry would then charge to push home a concentrated melee attack.
In the 17th and 18th century it referred to a tactic in which a cavalry formation would split down the middle and turn at right angles to let a charging or counter-charging cavalry formation pass through. They would then reverse and attack it in its unprotected flanks.

1. (architecture) A spiral staircase.

Translations

half-turn performed by a horse and rider

• French: caracole (fr) f
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Russian: карако́ль m (karakólʹ)

in cavalry

• French: caracole (fr) f
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Russian: карако́ль m (karakólʹ)

Verb

caracole (third-person singular simple present caracoles, present participle caracoling, simple past and past participle caracoled)

1. To execute a caracole.
   • 1819, Walter Scott, Ivanhoe

     Prince John, upon a grey and high-mettled palfrey, caracoled within the lists at the head of his jovial party, laughing loud with his train, and eyeing with all the boldness of royal criticism the beauties who adorned the lofty galleries.

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French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ka.ʁa.kɔl/
• Homophones: caracolent, caracoles

Etymology 1

Borrowed from Spanish caracol.

Noun

caracole f (plural caracoles)

1. (equestrianism) caracole
2. (architecture) caracole
3. (Belgium) snail

Etymology 2

Verb

caracole

1. inflection of caracoler:
   1. first/third-person singular present indicative/subjunctive
   2. second-person singular imperative

Further reading

• “caracole”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

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Walloon

Etymology

Borrowed from Spanish caracol.

Noun

caracole f (plural caracoles)

1. snail