Also 7 taffer(r)ell, 8 -eral, -eril, -rill, 8–9 -arel, 9 -aril, -rel. [a. Du. tafercel panel, picture, dim. of tafel TABLE (for *tafercel, with dissimilation of l … l to r … l). The 19th-c. corruption to taffrail, with accompanying change of sense, shows confusion of the ending -rel with RAIL sb.: cf. quot. 1704.]
† 1. A panel: esp. a carved panel. Obs.
1622–3. in Brit. Mag. (1833), III. 655. Item paid to John James a carver for cutting a Tafferell with a deathes head vpon it which is sett vpp at the entraunce … to our parish Church 00 15 00.
1632. in E. B. Jupp, Carpenters’ Co. (1887), 302. Carpenters … haue allwaies vsed to haue … the cutting of ballesters, hances, tafferrells, pendants and piramides.
2. Naut. The upper part of the flat portion of a ship’s stern above the transom, usually ornamented with carvings, etc. In later use including, and now applied to, the aftermost portion of the poop-rail, and spelt TAFFRAIL.
1704. J. Harris, Lex. Techn., I. Tafferel, is the uppermost Part, Frame, or Rail of a Ship abaft over the Poop.
1705. Lond. Gaz., No. 4116/3. Only her Hull from the Taffrill to the Midships remained above Water.
1750. Minutes Bd. of Admiralty, 1 Jan. (P.R.O.). To cause the Taffarel and Quarter Pieces of the Model of the Victory at the Royal Academy at Portsmouth to be carved agreeably to the ornaments of that Ship.
1833. M. Scott, Tom Cringle, ix. (1859), 179. He again attempted to drag me away from my hold on the Tafferel.
c. 1850. Rudim. Navig. (Weale), 155. Taffarel or taffrail, the upper part of the ship’s stern, usually ornamented with carved work or mouldings, the ends of which unite to the quarter-pieces.
1857. Wilkinson, Egypt. Pharaohs, 113. Boats had … one rudder turning on the taffrel.
b. Comb. Tafferel-rail = TAFFRAIL.
1846. Young, Naut. Dict., 244. Taffrail or Tafferel-Rail, the rail over the hends of the stern timbers.
