Gib

A gib or gib-arm is the horizontal or near-horizontal beam used in many types of crane to support the load clear of the main support.

Usually gib-arms are attached to a vertical mast or tower or sometimes to an inclined boom. In other jib-less designs such as derricks, the load is hung directly from a boom which is often anomalously called a jib.

The diminutive form gibbet (meaning short forked beam) may be misused to describe an entire gallows structure employed in gibbeting or hanging.