carrel

noun

1. (alt-of, alternative, obsolete)Alternative spelling of carol (“a small closet or enclosure built against the inner side of a window of a monastery's cloister, to sit in for study”).

   “Carol, or Carrel. A little pew, or closet, in a cloister, to sit and read in. They were common in greater monasteries, as Duram, Gloucester, Kirkham in Yorkshire, &c.; and had their name from the carols, or sentences inscribed on the walls about them, which often were couplets in rhyme. [Carola, Low Latin.]”

2. (broadly)A partitioned space for reading or studying, often in a library.

   “Near-synonym: cubicle (sometimes synonymous)”

   “He was busy writing his report in a small library carrel.”

   “He then returned to his carrell for his own research.”

   “Ah, the library. I booked like a madman for the Master’s Comp. Nine months, up in a study carrel on deck eight.”

   “I sneaked a look at what the German student in the next carrel was reading. It was [Georg Wilhelm Friedrich] Hegel, too—but in English translation! Well, I thought to myself with relief, if even native speakers use the English translation as a guide to Hegel's thought …”

3. (obsolete)A type of fabric used in the 16th and 17th centuries.
4. (obsolete)Synonym of quarrel (“a square-headed arrow”).

name

1. A surname.