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Glite Dictionary
jacal

jacal

9.9
A small hut made of mud and sticks that people use for shelter in the southwestern United States and Mexico
  • noun
  • /hɑːˈkɑːl/
  • US
translation icon : jacal
  • During the summer, we would gather at the jacal for barbecues and storytelling.

Examples

  • We walked toward a small jacal and a cluster of tamarisk, and above them, a dinosaur fig tree that bowed over them like a hand in its hundredth year of slowly closing.

    Fiction book (1996)

  • The family lived in a small jacal made of adobe and straw in the desert.

  • "The Jacal of Gilberto Luna," I read.

    Fiction book (2002)

  • Scuffing off to a respectful distance from his jacal, I take a leak.

    Fiction book (2002)

  • He placed his gun on the roof of the jacal, which was no more than a falling-down doghouse made of juniper branches.

    Fiction book (1996)

  • The old jacal was built by hand, using traditional methods passed down through generations.

Synonyms

adobe house
vsjacal
1 3.8

A house made from sun-dried earth and straw bricks

is a small hut commonly built from wattle and daub rather than only bricks
calli
vsjacal
  • Specialized
9.9

A small traditional house in Mexico and Central America where a family lives

is typical in the southwestern United States and Mexico rather than broader Mesoamerica

Surface Forms

jacal singular
jacals plural

Etymology

Jacal comes from Spanish and from the Nahuatl word xacalli, which meant 'house' or 'hut'. So a jacal is a small, simple shelter made of mud, wood, or thatch, the kind of home people built in the southwestern United States and Mexico.