bancal

From Spanish; see abancalar.

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.

From banc (“bench”) +‎ -al.

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

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

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

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

• IPA^(key): /bɑ̃.kal/

• Audio (Canada):

  (file)

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

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

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

• IPA^(key): /baŋˈkal/

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

• banco

• 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

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

bancal m (plural bancales)

1. plot (of land, for planting)

• “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], 10 December 2024

• blanca

• bancałe

bancal m (plural bancałi)

1. pallet
2. sill, windowsill