Forms: 7 chisel(l, cheasil, chizell, chesill, 8 chizzil, 7, 9 chissell, chizzel(l. [The same word as CHESIL, CHISEL sb.2 gravel, applied to bran from its coarse gritty character.]
Bran (called in some localities ‘sharps’); sometimes also applied to the coarsest flour in which some of the bran is left, ‘whole meal.’
1607. Topsell, Four-f. Beasts, 95. [They eat] Grass, Oats, Cheasil, Hay, and Bread. Ibid., 198. Mix goats bloud with chisel steept in broath.
1617. Markham, Caval., V. 8. Common horse-bread … made of ordinarie Chissell, or branne.
1641. Best, Farm. Bks. (1856), 105. § 1. Chizell … which, hereaboutes, is called treate, in the South-country, branne.
1674. Ray, S. & E. Country Wds., 61. Chizzell, bran.
1693. W. Robertson, Phraseol. Gen., 470. Coarse bread made of chesill.
1788. W. Marshall, E. Yorksh. Gloss. (E. D. S.), Chizzil, sb. bran (the common term).
1855. Whitby Gloss., Chizzel, bran, wheat skins from refining flour.
1877. Peacock, N. W. Linc. Gloss., Chissells, the coarsest kind of flour.
1886. S. W. Linc. Gloss., When you get your corn grun, first comes the bran, then the chisel, then the fine flour.
