The story
- Late Latin · derived fromhabitāculum“little dwelling place”
- Portuguese · derived frombitácula
- French · derived fromhabitacle
- English todaybinnacle
Corruption of earlier bittacle, from French habitacle. Or from obsolete Spanish or Portuguese bitácula, both from Late Latin habitāculum (“little dwelling place”). Compare modern Spanish bitácora.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.