“Gambol” can be used as both a verb and a noun. As a verb, it describes skipping and frisking about, without a care in the world. When you want to give a name to those movements, “gambol” is used as a noun. The same verb/noun distinction applies to the British sense of “gambol,” but the word also applies to the specific movement of a forward roll. The French word “gambade” originally applied to the frolicking prances of a horse, but when “gambol” moved over to English, the playful jumps were applied to humans and equines alike.