Word of the Day

: October 11, 2010

abrasive

adjective uh-BRAY-siv

What It Means

1 : tending to wear away by rubbing

2 : causing irritation

abrasive in Context

Coworkers tolerated John's abrasive personality because he was also brilliant, but many privately wished he could learn to be a bit more polite.

"Every time I watch my husband, who is a chef like me, sharpen our knives on one of his old-fashioned oilstones, I admire the simple elegance of the process: he just rubs the moistened blade at an angle against the rectangular block's finely abrasive surface." -- From an article in Saveur, January/February 2010

Did You Know?

Once upon a time, English had two different but similarly derived words meaning "to wear down": "abrade" and "abrase." However, in this fairy tale, only one of the two had a happy ending; while "abrade" remains a familiar word to modern English speakers, "abrase" has become quite rare. And yet, "abrase" lives on in its descendant "abrasive," which was formed by combining the verb with the "-ive" suffix. Both of the verbs, and by extension "abrasive," can be traced back to the Latin verb "abradere," meaning "to scrape off." "Abradere" in turn was a combination of "ab-" and "radere," meaning "to scrape."

Quick Quiz: What relative of "abrasive" means "to rub or scratch out"? The answer is ...