A small military fortification or bastion, especially a projecting structure designed to defend a wall or gatehouse.
From French 'cervelle' meaning brain, by metaphorical extension to a head-shaped fortification. The diminutive '-et' suffix indicates a small structure, used in military architecture terminology.
Medieval military engineers called defensive bastions 'cervalet' (little head) because they stuck out from walls like a head on a neck—revealing how architects saw fortifications as almost living bodies!
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