Excavated earth or material removed from a site during digging or construction work (a French-borrowed architectural term).
From French 'déblai,' derived from 'déblayer' (to clear away), combining 'de-' (away) and 'blai' (related to clearing). Adopted into English in the 18th-19th century in architectural/engineering contexts.
Architects and engineers still use 'deblai' and its opposite 'remblai' (fill material) when discussing earthworks—it's a bilingual technical vocabulary inherited from French military engineering!
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