Etymology: Middle English had two types, from Northern or Norman French, and Central or Parisian French respectively: 1) Middle English gay(h)ole , -ol , gayll(e , gaill(e , gayl(e , gaile , < Old Northern French gaiole , gayolle , gaole (modern Picard gayole , Walloon gaioule ); 2) Middle English jaiole , jayle , jaile , jayll , < Old French jaiole , jaole , jeole , geole , cage, prison, French geôle prison (Besançon javiole cage for fowls) = obsolete Italian gaiola , Spanish gayola (also, < French jaula cage, cell), Portuguese gaiola cage < Romanic and popular Latin *gaviōla (medieval Latin gabiola , 1229 in Brachet) for *caveola , diminutive of cavea hollow, cavity, den, cage, coop: see cage n. Of the two types, the Norman French and Middle English gaiole, gaole, came down to the 17th cent. as gaile, and still remains as a written form in the archaic spelling gaol (chiefly due to statutory and official tradition); but this is obsolete in the spoken language, where the surviving word is jail, representing. Old Parisian French and Middle English jaiole, jaile. Hence though both forms gaol, jail, are still written, only the latter is spoken. In U.S. jail is the official spelling. It is difficult to say whether the form goal(e, common, alike in official and general use, from the 16th to the 18th cent., was merely an erroneous spelling of gaol, after this had itself become an archaism, or was phonetic: compare modern French geôle/ʒol/.1668 R. L'Estrange tr. F. G. de Quevedo y Villegas Visions (1708) 6 Some again are..boring their very Noses with hot Irons, in rage that they cannot come to a Resolution, whether they shall say Face or Visage; whether they shall say Jayl or Gaol; whether Cony or Cunny.

Etymology: < jail n.