gravelle

Forms

gravelle f (plural gravelles)^[1] Old French gravele, later gravelle (13th century).^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old French gravele, formed from Old French grave + -ele, a diminutive of the word for gravel and sand also seen in grève.^[4][2][5][6] That word goes back to Vulgar Latin *grava (“sand, gravel”), a pre-Latin word.^[5][7] Bloch and Wartburg note that its spread as far as southern Italy rules out a Celtic origin,^[5][7] while Wiktionary and Etymonline allow a possible Gaulish source.^[1][8]

Littré compares Walloon grèvale, Namur gravale and Old Occitan gravel.^[9] The Old French word was borrowed into English as gravel.^[8][10]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first recorded about 1120 in the Oxford Psalter as gravele, meaning “sand”: sicume gravele de mer “like the sand of the sea”.^[4][9][2]

Semantic evolution

The sense “sand, gravel” lasted from the 12th century to the end of the 14th, and then survived only in regional speech.^[4][2][5] Also in the 12th century, in the Lapidary of Marbode, the word was applied in medicine to the small gritty concretions that form in the kidneys and bladder.^[4] From 1580 (Montaigne) it also named the painful disease they cause.^[2][3] Both medical senses are now dated; the disease is now called lithiase rénale.^[11][4]

In Canadian French gravelle means “gravel” (chemin de gravelle); the DHLF sees this as the survival of the old sense, while the Petit Robert takes it, from 1912, as a borrowing of English gravel.^[2][7] The derivative graveleux went from “gravelly” to “licentious” at the end of the 17th century, as if indecency troubled the conscience as gravel troubles the body.^[2][5]

Timeline

• c. 1120 – Gravele “sand” appears in the Oxford Psalter.^[4][3]
• 12th century – The Lapidary of Marbode uses it in medicine.^[4]
• 13th century – The spelling gravelle is recorded.^[3]
• late 14th century – The sense “sand” goes out of general use.^[4][2]
• 1580 – Montaigne uses it for the disease caused by urinary gravel.^[3][2]
• 1912 – The Canadian sense “gravel” is recorded.^[7]

Meanings

Noun

1. (medicine, dated) Small concretions in the kidneys or bladder, finer than stones.^[7][4][3]
2. (medicine, dated) The disease caused by these concretions, now called lithiase.^[7][11][4]
3. (Canada) Gravel.^[7][2]
4. Tartrate deposit in wine.^[1]

Word family

• graveleux
• gravelure

Related words

• grève
• gravier
• gravats
• English gravel

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
3. ^ a b c d e f Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Trésor de la langue française informatisé (2004), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/tlfi; electronic version of Imbs, Paul; Quemada, Bernard, eds. (1971–1994), Trésor de la langue française, Paris: CNRS / Gallimard
5. ^ a b c d e Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
6. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 4, 255b
7. ^ a b c d e f g Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
8. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
9. ^ a b Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
10. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
11. ^ a b Académie française (1992–2024), Dictionnaire de l'Académie française, 9th ed., Paris: Académie française / Fayard / Imprimerie nationale