Gristmills

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. Places where grain is ground into flour using mechanical processes
2. facilities that convert raw grain into meal through milling equipment
3. structures that utilize water or other power sources to crush grains for food production

Etymology: "Gristmills" is simply the plural of "gristmill," so the story lies in its two parts. "Grist" comes from Old English "grist," meaning a batch of grain taken to be ground, and it is related to the verb "grind" and its ancient relatives. A "mill" is a machine for grinding, a word that passed into English early from Latin "molina," itself tied to "mola," millstone. Put together, a gristmill is literally a mill for grinding a particular batch of grain, the sense of "grist" that survives in the old proverb "grist to the mill," meaning anything useful that can be turned to advantage. The compound describes the everyday work of a community mill, where farmers brought their harvest to be ground into meal and flour, and the plural simply counts such establishments.