Gambrel

[1][2] The term gambrel is of American origin,[3] the older, European name being a curb (kerb, kirb) roof.

Gambrel is a Norman English word, sometimes spelled gambol such as in the 1774 Boston carpenters' price book (revised 1800).

Other spellings include gamerel, gamrel, gambril, gameral, gambering, cambrel, cambering, chambrel[4] referring to a wooden bar used by butchers to hang the carcasses of slaughtered animals.

[5] Gambrel is also a term for the joint in the upper part of a horse's hind leg, the hock.

"—Let me beg You'll look at a horse's hinder leg,— First great angle above the hoof,— That's the gambrel; hence gambrel-roof.