English
erosion
Erosion comes from Latin ērōsiō ‘eating away’, from rōdō ‘to gnaw, nibble, bite’, and ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *Hreh₃d-.
- Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*Hreh₃d-‘to scrape, scratch, gnaw’reconstructed
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CErōdō‘to gnaw, nibble, bite’
- Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEērōdō‘to gnaw away’
- Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEērōsiō‘eating away’
- Middle Frenchc. 1400–1600erosion
- Englishearliest quotation 1995erosion
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor
Lineage
- Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*Hreh₃d-‘to scrape, scratch, gnaw’reconstructed
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CErōdō‘to gnaw, nibble, bite’
- Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEērōdō‘to gnaw away’
- Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEērōsiō‘eating away’
- Middle Frenchc. 1400–1600erosion
- Englishearliest quotation 1995erosion
Earliest quotation: 1995, Graham Linehan & al., Father Ted": “Father Ted: The cliffs were gone? How could they…”
first attested The first known occurrence in English was in the 1541 translation by Robert Copland of Guy de Chauliac's medical text The Questyonary of Cyrurygens (as stated in the etymology)
The story
The first known occurrence in English was in the 1541 translation by Robert Copland of Guy de Chauliac's medical text The Questyonary of Cyrurygens. Copland used erosion to describe how ulcers developed in the mouth. By 1774 erosion was used outside medical subjects. Oliver Goldsmith employed the term in the more contemporary geological context, in his book Natural History, with the quote
Linked words
through Proto-Indo-European *Hreh₃d- ‘to scrape, scratch, gnaw’
through Latin rōdō ‘to gnaw, nibble, bite’
rodent, corrosion, corrode, rostrum, rostral, 5 more
through Latin ērōdō ‘to gnaw away’
Today it means
noun The result of having been worn away or eroded, as by a glacier on rock or the sea on a cliff face.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / Proto-Indo-European *Hreh₃d- / erosion