corbel or console is a structural piece of stone, wood or metal - TopicsExpress

corbel or console is a structural piece of stone, wood or metal jutting from a wall to carry a superincumbent weight, a type of bracket.[1] A corbel is a solid piece of material in the wall, whereas a console is a piece applied to the structure. A piece of timber projecting in the same way was called a tassel or a bragger in the UK.[2] 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.[3] 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.[2][4] Similarly, the French refer to a bracket-corbel, usually a load-bearing internal feature, as a corbeau (a crow). Source: wIkipedia