EXAMPLES FROM THE WEB FOR ASPHALT
Steep hillsides are paved with cobblestones instead of asphalt.
In this way, the asphalt is held in position, and is an absolute prevention of dampness.
As for where this asphalt come from, I don't know, and nobody knows.
A recent rain had made the clay as slippery as asphalt in a drizzle.
A mixture of sand and asphalt will creep on slopes of 1½ to 1, but asphalt concrete will not.
With asphalt at $20 a ton, and labor at $2 a day, the cost was 15 cts.
Above this two layers of asphalt of an aggregate thickness of ¾ in.
The asphalt should be heated in a kettle to a temperature not exceeding 450° F.
The rest was flat-buildings and asphalt and motor-puddled air.
Coal has essential features in common with asphalt, oil, and gas.
WORD ORIGIN
early 14c., "hard, resinous mineral pitch found originally in Biblical lands," from Late Latin asphaltum, from Greek asphaltos "asphalt, bitumen," probably from a non-Greek source, possibly Semitic [Klein, citing Lewy, 1895]. Another theory holds it to be from Greek a- "not" + *sphaltos "able to be thrown down," taken as verbal adjective of sphallein "to throw down," in reference to a use of the material in building.
Meaning "paving composition" dates from 1847 and its popular use in this sense established the modern form of the English word, mostly displacing asphaltum, asphaltos. As a verb meaning "to cover with asphalt," from 1872.