curtal
/ˈkəːt(ə)l
/adjective archaic
Shortened, abridged, or curtailed: the curtal frock of sunbright cotton...
- A ‘curtal [shortened] sonnet’ (G.M. Hopkins) consists of a sestet followed by a quatrain and a half-line tailpiece.
noun historical
A dulcian or bassoon of the late 16th to early 18th century.The result is a programme of genuine old fashioned carols, songs and dances, performed on shawms, sackbut, recorders, flutes, curtals, lutes, guitars, harp, bagpipes and the hurdy-gurdy....
- The lowest of the four orchestral woodwinds, it was developed from the Renaissance curtal or dulcian in the mid-17th century as part of the general reconstruction of all woodwind instruments that took place in France.
- Anyone who blew you away with their chops on cornetto, curtal or theorbo?
Origin
Late 15th century (denoting a short-barrelled cannon): from French courtault, from court 'short' + the pejorative suffix -ault. In both English and French the noun denoted various items characterized by something short, especially an animal with a docked tail, which probably gave rise to the adjective sense.