also curb-stone, "stone placed against earthwork, etc., to keep it from spreading, one of the stones set together at the outer edge of a street or sidewalk," by 1775, from curb (n.) + stone (n.).
Entries linking to curbstone
curb n.
late 15c., "strap passing under the jaw of a horse" (attached to the bit of the bridle and used to restrain the animal), from Old French courbe "curb on a horse" (12c.), from Latin curvus, from curvare "to bend," from PIE root *sker- (2) "to turn, bend." The same word was used late 14c. in the sense of "a hump," and in Anglo-Latin as "curved or arched piece of timber" (late 13c.).
Meaning "enclosed framework" is from 1510s, probably originally with a notion of "curved;" extended to margins of garden beds by 1731; to "margin of joined, upright stones between a sidewalk and road" by 1791 (sometimes in this sense spelled kerb). Figurative sense of "a check, a restraint, that which holds back" is from 1610s.
stone n.
Old English stan, used of common rocks, precious gems, concretions in the body, memorial stones, from Proto-Germanic *stainaz (source also of Old Norse steinn, Danish steen, Old Saxon sten, Old Frisian sten, Dutch steen, Old High German stein, German Stein, Gothic stains), from PIE *stoi-no-, suffixed form of root *stai- "stone," also "to thicken, stiffen" (source also of Sanskrit styayate "curdles, becomes hard;" Avestan stay- "heap;" Greek stear "fat, tallow," stia, stion "pebble;" Old Church Slavonic stena, Russian stiena "wall").
Sense of "testicle" is from late Old English. The British measure of weight (usually equal to 14 pounds) is from late 14c., originally a specific stone. Stone-fruit, one with a pit, is from 1520s. Stone's throw for "a short distance" is attested from 1580s. Stone Age is from 1864. To kill two birds with one stone is first attested 1650s. To leave no stone unturned is from 1540s.