K. Marce
Toballa, is still a word in disuse, although its explanation is included in the dictionary of the RAE. The word is considered Archaic and its use is not widespread. It used to be used in the Andalusia region, and its concept is not the same as we have now. We can call a towel to anything that serves to dry the body regardless of size; but toballa was more referring to a smaller piece to dry the face or cover a wound. Its origin is Germanic, Tahwalla (or something similar). The fact that it remains in the dictionary does not mean that it is accepted. Any word that has the “classification” “desus”, or “p.us” means respectively: disused or little use. The grammatically correct is towel, as is Murcielago (not bat) and now (not agora). The DREA can include words that are still used by written means (for example, an original by Cervantes), but if they are classified in disuse or little use, it is because they are no longer part of the grammar / oral language of the general population, who in the end it is the one that dictates the rules of the language.