gravelly

The story

1. Proto-Indo-European · derived from*gʰreh₁w-“to grind”
2. Old French · derived fromgravel
3. Middle English · inherited fromgravelli“covered with gravel or sand; (pathology) containing sand-like matter”
4. English todaygravelly

From Middle English gravelli (“covered with gravel or sand; (pathology) containing sand-like matter”), from gravel (“sand; grain of stand; gravel, pebbles; (pathology) sand-like matter in the urine, calculus”) + -lī (suffix forming adjectives). Gravel is derived from Old French gravel, gravele, gravelle (“gravel; (pathology) calculus”) (modern French gravelle (“(pathology) calculus”)), from grave (“coarse sand, gravel; seashore”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *gʰreh₁w- (“to grind”); modern French grève (“riverbank; shore, strand”)) + -ele (diminutive suffix). The English word is analysable as gravel + -y (suffix forming adjectives meaning ‘having the quality of’).