Gravel

Gravel - (Webster's 1828 Dictionary)

GRAV'EL, n.

1. Small stones or fragments of stone, or very small pebbles, larger than the particles of sand, but often intermixed with them.

2. In medicine, small calculous concretions in the kidneys and bladder.

GRAV'EL, v.t. To cover with gravel; as, to gravel a walk.

1. To stick in the sand.

2. To puzzle; to stop; to embarrass.

3. To hurt the foot of a horse, by gravel lodged under the shoe.

grav'-el (chatsats, from root chatsats, "to divide." Kindred roots have the meaning of "to cut," "to hew," "to sharpen," hence chets, "arrow" (2Ki 13:17; Ps 64:7 and often); compare Arabic chacca, "to fall to the lot of," chiccah, "portion"): In Pr 20:17, we have:

"Bread of falsehood is sweet to a man;

But afterwards his mouth shall be filled with gravel."

And in La 3:16:

"He hath also broken my teeth with gravel stones; he

hath covered me with ashes."

The only other occurrence of the word is in Ps 77:17, where it is the equivalent of chets, "arrow" (see supra):

"The clouds poured out water;

The skies sent out a sound:

Thine arrows also went abroad."

Pr 20:17 and La 3:16 both suggest the frequent occurrence of grit in the coarse bread, the source of the grit being not necessarily the grindstone, but possibly even small stones originally mingled with the wheat and never properly separated from it.

Alfred Ely Day