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 base2) + -culer, v. deriv. of cul rump, buttocks (see culet); -s- by false analysis as bas(se) adj. + cule taken as a fem. n.
[bas-kyool] 
