English

Noun

carcel ‎(plural carcels)

1. (historical) A former unit to measure the intensity of light, approximately 9.74 candelas
   • 1901, Charles King, Ray's Daughter:

     They would surely have heard of it, and now he was here, still virtually in hiding and possibly in disguise, and one unguarded word of hers might land him a prisoner, a war-time deserter, within the walls of the gloomy carcel in Old Manila.

   • 1896, Various, Scientific American Supplement, No. 1082, September 26, 1896:

     In all systems of lighting, save electricity, the unit of light is the carcel.

   • 1888, Various, Scientific American Supplement, No. 664, September 22,1888:

     When experimenting in Paris with a No. 3 lamp in a vertical direction, it showed a consumption of 34.6 liters (1.2 cubic feet) per carcel obtained.

   • 1885, Various, Scientific American Supplement, No. 488, May 9, 1885:

     Desroziers in a series of experiments obtained as much as 250 carcel spherical luminous value per horse-power; this characteristic is one likely to be of great value in electric lighting by incandescence of high intensity.

Related terms

• Carcel lamp

Old Spanish

Etymology

From Latin carcerem, singular accusative of carcer.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [ˈkar.t͡sel]

Noun

carcel m (plural carceles)

1. prison, jail
   • c1200: Almeric, Fazienda de Ultramar, f. 6v. col. 1.

     ¬ metiolos pharaon en / la carcel o era ioſep.

     and Pharaoh put them in the same prison as Joseph.

Synonyms

• prison f

Derived terms

• carcelero

Descendants

• Spanish: cárcel