Editing Gruel (section)

==Etymology==
The ''[[Oxford English Dictionary]]'' gives an etymology of [[Middle English]] ''{{lang|enm|gruel}}'' from the same word in [[Old French]], both of them deriving from a source in [[Late Latin]]: ''{{lang|la|grutellum}}'', a [[diminutive]], as the form of the word demonstrates, possibly from an [[Old Frankish]] ''{{lang|frk|*grūt}}'', surmised on the basis of a modern cognate ''[[grout]]''. In modern Dutch, the plural word "grutten" still refers to de-husked,  coarse ground grain and a traditional dish based on pearlbarley and blackberry is called [[watergruwel]]. The Old French ''gruel'' gave rise to the Modern French ''{{lang|fr|gruau}}'', which in [[North America]] is used for [[porridge]] and [[oatmeal]] as modern breakfast cereals.

The Old Norse word ''{{lang|non|grautr}}'', meaning "coarse-ground grain", gives way to the Icelandic ''grautur'', Faroese ''greytur'', Norwegian ''grøt'' ([[nynorsk]] ''graut''), Danish ''grød'', and the Swedish and Elfdalian ''gröt'', all meaning [[porridge]], of which gruel is a subtype.

The German "Grießmehl", ground grain, and Dutch "griesmeel", are compounded cognates to the English ''grist'' and ''meal''.