spall

Meanings

Noun

• A splinter, fragment or chip, especially of stone.
• The shoulder.

Verb

• To break into fragments or small pieces.
• To reduce, as irregular blocks of stone, to an approximately level surface by hammering.

Origin

• From Middle English spalle ("a chip") (first documented in 1440), of uncertain origin. Perhaps from the Middle English verb spald (c.1400), from Middle Low German spalden, cognate with Old High German spaltan ("to split").
• From Italian spalla.