catafalquen.

Etymology: < modern French catafalque, < Italian catafalco (which also occurs in English); in Provençal cadafalcs , cadafaus , Old Catalan cadafal , Spanish cadafalso , cadahalso , cadalso , Old Northern French caafaus (in rég. -faut ), Old French chaafaus (-faut ), chafault , chafauld , whence Old French escafaut , eschafaut , modern French échafaud , English scaffold n.; in medieval Latin variously found as catafaltus , cadafaldus , cadaffale , cadapallus , cadaphallus , chafallus . Of unknown derivation; even the original form is uncertain; French pointing to -fald- or -falt- , Italian to -falc- , Spanish to -fals (see scaffold n.).The derivation proposed by Diez is entirely discarded (see Romania I. 490). M. Paul Meyer thinks the first element may be the Greek κατα- which was sometimes used in medieval Latin in sense ‘beside’, ‘alongside’ ( Romania II. 80). ‘The cadafals or chaafaus in Old French was a wooden erection crowning walls, and projecting from them on both sides. Thence the besieged commanded assailants beneath’.