binnacle

English

Etymology

Corruption of earlier bittacle, from French habitacle. Or from obsolete Spanish or Portuguese bitácula, both from Late Latin habitāculum (“little dwelling place”). Compare modern Spanish bitácora.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈbɪnəkəl/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

Noun

binnacle (plural binnacles)

1. (nautical) The wooden housing for a ship's compass, with its corrector magnets and illuminating arrangements.
   • 1811, The Tradesman, volume 7, page 420:

     The lamp, or candle, which lights the binnacle, is placed in the cabin, of course the expence of one light is saved, and all the inconveniences of blowing out in a squally night, and likewise the trouble of trimming the lamp, are avoided.

2. The instrument cluster on a car or motorcycle.

Derived terms

• binnacle list

Translations

(nautical) the wooden housing for a ship's compass

• Catalan: bitàcola (ca) f
• Dutch: kompashuisje (nl) n
• Finnish: kompassipylväs
• French: habitacle (fr) m
• German: Kompasshaus (de) n, Kompasshäuschen n
• Greek: πυξιδοθήκη (el) f (pyxidothíki)
• Hebrew: בֵּית מַצְפֵּן (he) m (beyt matspen)
• Italian: chiesuola f
• Japanese: 羅針箱 (らしんはこ, rashinhako)
• Polish: naktuz (pl) m
• Portuguese: bitácula (pt) f
• Romagnol: abitàcol m
• Romanian: habitaclu (ro) n
• Russian: накто́уз (ru) m (naktóuz)
• Spanish: bitácora (es) f
• Ukrainian: нактоуз m (naktouz)
• Welsh: binacl m

Further reading

• binnacle on Wikipedia.Wikipedia