Arch. Also 7–9 tossel, 9 tassal. [a. OF. tassel, mod.F. tasseau, = It. tassello a bit of stone or wood to stop a hole,:—L. taxillus a small die. The form torsel app. arises from workmen’s lengthening of the vowel in tossel.] A short board or ‘templet’ placed under the end of a beam or other timber where it rests on brickwork or stonework.
1632. in E. B. Jupp, Carpenters’ Co. (1887), 301. The making of all mantletrees tassels and footepaces of timber. Ibid. (1654), 316. That no Timber … be laid in Chimneys except the mantle trees Tassells and Discharges.
1667. Primatt, City & C. Build., 82. Allow six foot of Timber for every Chimney, for Mantle-trees and Torsels.
1703. Moxon, Mech. Exerc., 264. When you lay any Timber on Brick-work, as Torsels for Mantle-Trees to lye on.
1823. P. Nicholson, Pract. Build., 595. Torsel, a piece of wood laid into a wall for the end of a timber or beam to rest on.
1842–76. Gwilt, Archit., Gloss., Tassal, Tassel, Torsel, or Tossel, the plate of timber for the end of a beam or of a joist to rest on.
