g 2 a 1 v 4 e 1 l 1
5 letters · 9 points in Scrabble
Meaning
noun a small mallet used by a presiding officer or a judge
originOrigin obscure. Possibly an alteration of dialectal cavel, a variant of kevel (“a stone mason's axe with a flat face, a cleat or bollard”), from Middle English kevel (“a mason's hammer”), from Old Norse kefli (“a piece of wood, stick, cylinder, mangle”). Cognate with Norwegian kjevle (“rolling pin”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 3.0