bovenstel

Bovenstel is a Dutch noun meaning the upper structure or framework of a device, vehicle, or building, as opposed to the onderstel, which denotes the undercarriage or foundation. The word is formed from boven, “above,” and stel, “frame” or “set.”

In historical Dutch usage, bovenstel described the upper part of a horse-drawn carriage, i.e., the body or coach’s shell mounted on the undercarriage. The term distinguished the body from the undercarriage and wheels.

In railway and rolling stock vocabulary, bovenstel referred to the upper structure of a locomotive or railcar; modern usage tends to use bovenbouw or carrosserie rather than bovenstel. The term is thus more common in older or technical texts than in everyday language.

In nautical contexts, bovenstel can appear in older texts to mean the ship’s upper works above the deck; contemporary nautical language typically uses terms such as bovenbouw or superstructure.

In architecture, the word is rarely used; when it occurs, it generally denotes the upper part of a construction on the foundation, but the usual term is bovenbouw.

See also: onderstel, bovenbouw, carrosserie, superstructure.