Etymograph

English

abfraction

From ab- + fraction (“act of breaking”); from 1991.

Formed from ab- + fraction ‘act of breaking’

Proto-Indo-European *h₂epo ‘off, away’

English ab-

Proto-Indo-European *bʰreg- ‘to break’

Medieval Latin fractio ‘a fragment, portion’

Old French fraccion

Middle English fraccioun ‘a breaking’

English fraction

Today it means

noun A proposed mechanism for noncarious tooth tissue loss, owing not to decay but rather to biomechanical stresses of biting and chewing; the pathogenesis of such damage remains a subject of continuing study.

Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.

Etymograph / abfraction