What does bricole mean?
A bricole is, in its most familiar surviving sense, a shot in billiards or carrom in which the ball is deliberately rebounded off a cushion before striking its target — what many players today would simply call a bank shot. The term is chiefly British and has a slightly old-fashioned flavour, appearing more often in older coaching manuals and descriptive accounts of the game than in everyday play. The word carries a second, entirely different meaning: in medieval warfare, a bricole was a type of military engine, such as a catapult, used to hurl stones or other missiles against fortifications; this sense now belongs almost exclusively to historical texts. Both senses derive from French, and the word shares its origin with 'bricolage', which came to mean making do with whatever materials are at hand. Though uncommon, bricole rewards writers who want precise, evocative vocabulary for games of angles or for descriptions of pre-gunpowder siegecraft.
nounA shot in billiards or carrom in which the cue ball rebounds off a cushion before striking the object ball; also called a bank shot. Historically, a bricole was also a kind of medieval military engine, such as a catapult, used to hurl missiles at fortifications.
- A billiards or carrom shot in which the ball is played off a cushion to reach its target.
- An obsolete medieval siege engine, such as a catapult, for hurling missiles.
"She won the frame with an audacious bricole off the top cushion."
"He threaded the red through a crowd of balls with a delicate bricole off the side cushion."
"Medieval engineers wheeled the bricole into position and began bombarding the gatehouse."
Standard plural; stress remains on the second syllable.
"Both players attempted risky bricoles in the deciding game."
Before it named a clever trick shot on the pool table, a bricole was a medieval war machine flinging stones at castle walls.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of bricole
Bricole entered English from French in the early seventeenth century, where it denoted a catapult-like siege engine; the word's further origin is uncertain, though French borrowed it ultimately through Old French and possibly Italian briccola. The billiards sense developed later, extending the idea of a rebounding strike from the war machine's action to the ball's rebound off a cushion. It is related to the French noun that gave English 'bricolage', a term popularised in the twentieth century by the anthropologist Claude Lévi-Strauss.
How bricole is actually used
The billiards sense is now somewhat dated and chiefly British; modern players more often say 'bank shot'. The military sense survives only in historical writing about medieval warfare.
Easily confused with bricole
Bricolage refers to construction or creation from whatever materials happen to be available, while bricole is either a cushion-rebounding billiards shot or an obsolete military engine.