It is a navigation tool, an instrument with a magnetized moving piece that rotates inside a box pointing to the earth's magnetic north, which is usually on a graph with the cardinal or pink points of the winds. Today there are more sophisticated versions, which you can use up to the GPS signal. The name comes from the Italian bussola (sometimes written as breixola), which inherits it from vulgar Latin buxida ( "box of [wood of] boj" ).
