Plural of gabion; wire baskets or cages filled with rocks, stones, or earth, used in military fortifications, erosion control, and modern civil engineering.
From French gabion, from Italian gabbione (large cage, augmentative of gabbia meaning cage). The word entered English military vocabulary via 16th-century fortification terminology.
Gabions are experiencing a major comeback today in civil engineering for flood control and riverbank erosion—the medieval military invention is now used to protect cities from climate change, showing how old technologies sometimes find new life in modern problems.
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