Gabion, Gale, Generating Area, Graded Bedding, Gradient: Word Origins, Descriptions of Coastal Features, Processes

In the current alphabetic series of word origins and physical descriptions of coastal features and processes, here are gabion, gale, generating area, generation of waves, graded bedding, gradient, and gravel.

Gabion
The English word gabion comes from Middle French gabion, from Old Italian gabbione (literally "large cage"), an augmentative of gabbia ("cage"), from Latin cavea ("cage, cavity"), from cavus ("hollow").

A gabion is a basket or cage, originally of wicker but now usually of strap iron or steel wire mesh, filled with earth or rocks and used as a support in engineering projects, such as fortifications.

Specifically applied to coastal uses, gabions protect banks and bottoms from erosion, and serve as foundations for breakwaters and other structures.

Gale
The coast-related word gale is of unknown origin.

A gale is a strong current of air. The Beaufort Scale of wind velocities names the various kinds of gales as follows (mph = miles per hour): moderate gale, or near gale, 32-38 mph; fresh gale, or gale, 39-46 mph; strong gale, 47-54 mph; and whole gale, or storm, 55-63 mph.

Generating Area
A generating area is a continuous stretch of water surface over which wind blows in the same direction and generates waves.

Generation of Waves
The creation and growth of waves by the sustained blowing of wind over a specific stretch of water surface is called the generation of waves.

Graded Bedding
A sediment bed in which the coarsest grains are at the bottom and progressively finer grains layer toward the top is known as graded bedding.

Gradient
The English word gradient comes from Latin gradient-, a combining form of gradiens, the present participle of gradi ("to step, go").

On a coast, the word gradient has at least two important meanings: the inclination, or the rate of regular graded ascent or descent, of a slope of either soil or water; and the rate of increase or decrease in the speed of winds or water currents.

Gravel
Modern English gravel comes from Middle English gravel, from Old French gravele, a diminutive of grave ("pebbly ground, beach").

In early use (beginning in the 14th century), gravel denoted both sand (now obsolete) and the modern sense of the word: loose rounded fragments of rock, larger than sand but smaller than pebbles.
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Encyclopaedia Britannica Ready Reference 2004. CD-ROM. Encyclopaedia Britannica, 2004.

Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary. 11th ed. Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 2006.

Merriam-Webster's Geographical Dictionary. 3rd ed. Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 2007.

The Oxford English Dictionary. 2nd ed. Oxford, England: Clarendon Press, 1989.