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BASCULE - 3 dictionary results

bas⋅cule

[bas-kyool]
–noun Civil Engineering.
a device operating like a balance or seesaw, esp. an arrangement of a movable bridge (bascule bridge) by which the rising floor or section is counterbalanced by a weight.

Origin:
1670–80; F: name for a number of seesawlike mechanical devices, MF bacule, n. deriv. of baculer to strike on the buttocks (prob. orig., to land on one's buttocks), equiv. to bas down (see base 2 ) + -culer, v. deriv. of cul rump, buttocks (see culet ); -s- by false analysis as bas(se) adj. + cule taken as a fem. n.
bas·cule   (bās'kyōōl)   
n.  A device or structure, such as a drawbridge, counterbalanced so that when one end is lowered the other is raised.

[French, seesaw : bas, low (from Medieval Latin bassus) + cul, bottom (from Latin cūlus, rump; see (s)keu- in Indo-European roots).]

Bascule

Bas"cule\, n. [F., a seesaw.] In mechanics an apparatus on the principle of the seesaw, in which one end rises as the other falls.

Bascule bridge, a counterpoise or balanced drawbridge, which is opened by sinking the counterpoise and thus lifting the footway into the air.
Language Translation for : BASCULE
Spanish: balancín,
German: die Kufe,
Japanese: ゆり子
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