Corral - Encyclopedia

GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES

CORRAL (Span. from corro, a circle), a word used chiefly in Spanish America and the United States for an enclosure for cattle and horses, and also for a defensive circle formed of wagons against attacks from Indians. It is also used as a verb, meaning to drive into a corral, and so figuratively to enclose, hem in. The word is probably connected with the South African Dutch word kraal. In Ceylon it is especially used for an enclosure meant for the capture of wild elephants. In this last sense of the word the corresponding term in India is keddah.