Corbel

In architecture a corbel (or console) is a piece of masonry jutting out of a wall to carry any superincumbent weight. A piece of timber projecting in the same way was called a "tassel" or a "bragger". The technique of corbelling, where rows of corbels deeply keyed inside a wall support a projecting wall or parapet, has been used since Neolithic times. It is common in Medieval architecture and in the Scottish baronial style as well as in the Classical architectural vocabulary, such as the modillions of a Corinthian cornice and in ancient Chinese architecture.

The word "corbel" comes from Old French and derives from the Latin corbellus, a diminutive of corvus (a raven) which refers to the beak-like appearance. Similarly, the French refer to a bracket-corbel, usually a load-bearing internal feature, as corbeau (a crow). A cul-de-lampe is a kind of bracket-corbel supporting a vault; the term is also used for a corbel with a tapering base. Italians use mensola ("little table"), the Germans Kragstein ("collar stone"). The usual word in modern French for a corbel in the context of Classical architecture is modillon.

In traditional Chinese architecture, such a load-bearing structural element, made of stone or wood, is called dougong and has been used since the late centuries BC.