bancal

English

Etymology

From Spanish; see abancalar.

Noun

bancal (plural bancales)

1. An ornamental covering, as of carpet or leather, for a bench or form.
   • 1894, Arthur Conan Doyle, The White Company, page 217:

     A few rich settles and bancals, choicely carved and decorated with glazed leather hangings of the sort termed or basané, completed the furniture of the apartment.

Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for “bancal”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.)

Catalan

Etymology

From banc (“bench”) +‎ -al.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): (Central, Balearic) [bəŋˈkal]
• IPA^(key): (Valencia) [baŋˈkal]

Noun

bancal m (plural bancals)

1. storage bench

   Synonyms: arquibanc, caixabanc

2. a piece of carpet or cloth covering furniture
3. bed, plot, terrace, parcel (agricultural)

   Synonym: feixa

4. predella

Further reading

• “bancal”, in Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana, 2025.

French

Etymology

Borrowed from Old Occitan bancal, from Medieval Latin bancālis, from the base of Proto-Germanic *bankiz + -alis.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /bɑ̃.kal/

• Audio (Canada):

  (file)

Adjective

bancal (feminine bancale, masculine plural bancals, feminine plural bancales)

1. bow-legged, bandy-legged (of person)
2. rickety, wobbly (of table etc.)
3. shaky, unclear, illogical

Further reading

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

Galician

Etymology

Attested since the 14th century. From banco (“bench”) +‎ -al.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /baŋˈkal/

Noun

bancal m (plural bancais)

1. bancal
   • 1326, López Ferreiro, Antonio (ed.): Galicia Histórica. Colección diplomática. Santiago: Tipografía Galaica, page 295:

     mando esta mia cama assy como iaz con sous panos et con suas cortinas et ceo et con sous alfamares et con los outros destalos que eu trago comunalmente pela terra et con vn pano uerde et un tapete sen bançaes

     I bequeath this my bed, as it is, with its clothes and with its curtains and ceiling and with its quilts and with the other rugs that I have usually in the ground and with a green cloth and a tablecloth, no bancals

Related terms

• banco

References

• Ernesto Xosé González Seoane, María Álvarez de la Granja, Ana Isabel Boullón Agrelo (2006–2022) “bancal”, in Dicionario de Dicionarios do galego medieval (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega
• Xavier Varela Barreiro, Xavier Gómez Guinovart (2006–2018) “bançaes”, in Corpus Xelmírez - Corpus lingüístico da Galicia medieval (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega
• Antón Luís Santamarina Fernández, editor (2006–2013), “bancal”, in Dicionario de Dicionarios da lingua galega [Dictionary of Dictionaries of the Galician language] (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega
• Antón Luís Santamarina Fernández, Ernesto Xosé González Seoane, María Álvarez de la Granja, editors (2003–2018), “bancal”, in Tesouro informatizado da lingua galega (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega
• Rosario Álvarez Blanco, editor (2014–2024), “bancal”, in Tesouro do léxico patrimonial galego e portugués (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega, →ISSN

Spanish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /banˈkal/ [bãŋˈkal]
• Rhymes: -al
• Syllabification: ban‧cal

Noun

bancal m (plural bancales)

1. plot (of land, for planting)

Further reading

• “bancal”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 2024 December 10

Anagrams

• blanca

Venetan

Alternative forms

• bancałe

Noun

bancal m (plural bancałi)

1. pallet
2. sill, windowsill