Carrels

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. Separate study alcoves commonly established in library environments offer users a degree of privacy for personal academic pursuits
2. Enclosed learning spaces, frequently located in educational institutions, allow individuals to concentrate on their studies without distractions
3. Individual small rooms or compartments designed to provide a quiet area for reading or studying in libraries

Etymology: The library carrel descends from a word for a small enclosure that has almost nothing to do with books. Middle English "carole" meant a round dance, a circle of people singing and dancing, and it also came to mean a circular or enclosed thing, and a stall for study or writing. The desk, in other words, was named for the way it surrounds the person sitting at it. The modern spelling "carrel" is a variant of "carol" in its sense of a small closet or enclosure, so the reading room compartment and the Christmas song share a remote ancestor. The more tangled part of the story is where the word's shape came from. "Carrel" is a variant of "carreau," the French word for a square or tile, which traces back through Old French "quarel," a square block of stone, to Latin "quadrus," meaning square. Something built of squared-off panels or tiles fits the idea of a boxed-in study space. The word may also be linked to "quarrel," the crossbow bolt, though that connection is uncertain.

Synonyms: study carrels, study cubicles