The bevel is named for a gaping mouth — the carpenter's angle tool resembled open jaws, connecting it to the same root as "bay window" and "abeyance."
A sloping surface or edge, especially one cut at an angle other than a right angle. Also a tool used to mark or check angles, and a verb meaning to cut at an angle.
From Old French *bevel or baivel (a carpenter's rule for measuring angles), possibly from bayer (to gape, open), from the open angle of the tool, ultimately from Late Latin batare (to gape, yawn) Key roots: bayer (Old French: "to gape, open wide"), batare (Late Latin: "to gape, yawn").
The bevel is named for a gaping mouth — the open angle of the carpenter's adjustable rule resembled an open jaw, connecting it to Old French bayer ("to gape"). The same root gives us "bay" as in a bay window (which gapes outward) and "abeyance" (a legal term for something left gaping, open, unresolved). In gemcutting, the bevel facets are the angled faces cut around a stone's girdle. In typography and digital design, "bevel" describes the 3D edge