Rubble is broken stone and brick from a ruined building. A pile of rubble, reduced to rubble, clear the rubble.
It is what a building becomes, so reduced to rubble is the standard way of describing total destruction. In construction, rubble is also a legitimate material: rubble walls are built of rough uncut stone, and rubble fills the core of many old thick walls. Note hardcore, which is crushed rubble used as a base under concrete; and that rubble and rubbish are probably the same word.
1nounrubbleBroken stone and brick from a ruined building.
“Rescue workers searched through the rubble for survivors after the earthquake.”
rubble is broken building material.
Anglo-Norman robel meant bits of broken stone. Rubbish is presumably the same word, which is why the two still overlap whenever a building comes down.
Old French
robe
Proto-Germanic
*rubbōną — to rub, scrape
Old Norse
rubba — to huddle, crowd together, heap up", possibly also "to rub, scrape
Anglo-Norman
*robel — bits of broken stone
Middle English
rouble,rubel,robel,robeil
English, today
rubble
Built from
Middle English rouble,rubel,robel,robeil, from Anglo-Norman robel (“bits of broken stone”). Presumably related to rubbish, originally of same meaning waste material, bits of stone, rubble. Ultimately presumably from Old Norse rubba (“to huddle, crowd together, heap up", possibly also "to rub, scrape”), from Proto-Germanic rubbōną (“to rub, scrape”), related to reufaną (“to tear”), raubōną (“to rob, steal, plunder”), perhaps via Old French robe (English rob (“steal”)) in sense of “plunder, destroy”; see also Middle English, Middle French -el.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA