debris, noun

Forms:
Also débris, dêbris.
Origin:
From French.
obsolescent, Mining
The muddy waste discarded after gold or diamonds have been extracted from metal-bearing or diamondiferous ore. Also attributive, and combination (objective), debris washer, debris washing noun phrases.
Note:
Not exclusively South African English, but apparently first used in this sense in South Africa.
1871 J. Shaw in Cape Monthly Mag. II. June 358In the paucity of materials in the débris of pans worked for diamonds, I would have less difficulty in finding traces of these rocks.
1887 J.W. Matthews Incwadi Yami 373The mountains, with the grassy plains rolling between, to one who for years had seen nothing but heaps of diamond debris and tailings from washing machines seemed inexpressibly and overpoweringly grand.
1891 R. Smith Great Gold Lands 74The smaller diggers find in debris washing more profit than in mining in maiden ground. There is no excavation to be done, and the very imperfect washing and sorting of the early days has left plenty of diamonds still amongst the pebbles.
1899 O.E.A. Schreiner Eng.-South African’s View of Situation 63One stands looking..at the great mining camp of Johannesburg..with its heaps of white sand and debris mountain high.
1902 D. Ward Digest of Criminal Cases Decided in Superior Courts 5The accused, an employé, not of De Beers, but of a débris washer.
1911 L. Cohen Reminisc. of Kimberley 24I betook myself to the different mounds of debris, on the top of which were claim holders, seated each in front of a rough table, piled with carbonaceous earth, brought from the mine to them by Kaffirs...A number of men made their living, and sometimes more, by débris washing.
1920 F.C. Cornell Glamour of Prospecting 23This mile-long beach looked like a vast débris heap of all the fancy pebbles the ‘new-chum’ digger usually collects during his first month or so on the River Diggings.
1949 C. Bullock Rina 112We plugged away, getting out the infall of débris which always masks old workings.
The muddy waste discarded after gold or diamonds have been extracted from metal-bearing or diamondiferous ore. Also attributive, and combination (objective), debris washer, debris washing noun phrases.
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18711949

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obsolete or obsolescent
debit order, noun phrasen. phr.Deepavali, nounn.
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