Also 5 spalle, spolle, 8– spawl. Of doubtful origin: perh. related to G. spellen to split, but cf. SPALE sb.2] A chip or splinter, esp. of stone or ore.
α. c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 467/1. Spalle, or chyppe (K. spolle), quisquilia, assula.
1585. Higins, trans. Junius’ Nomencl., 411/2. Segmenta, the spalls or broken peeces of marble comming off in grauing and hewing.
1611. Cotgr., Retailles, the spalls, or shards; the peeces which flie from stone in the hewing thereof.
1706. Phillips (ed. Kersey), Spalls, Chips of Wood.
1875. Knight, Dict. Mech., 2252/1. Spall.… A chip of stone, removed by the hammer.
1892. Daily News, 22 Oct., 5/4. A stock of granite spalls could be had in.
β. 1793. Smeaton, Edystone L., § 35. The great tendency of the Laminæ whereof the rock is composed, to rise in spawls. Ibid., § 112, note. Observing how soon the quarrymen would cut half a ton of Spawls from an unformed block.
1897. T. Hardy, Well-Beloved, 8. Like all the gardens in the isle it was surrounded by a wall of dry-jointed spawls.
