Etymology

detritus

D2E1T1R1I1T1U1S1

Today it means: Pieces of rock broken off by ice, glacier, or erosion. Full definition →

Latin dētrītus
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The story

  1. Latin · learned borrowing fromdētrītus“(that which is) rubbed away”
  2. English todaydetritus

Learned borrowing from Latin dētrītus (“(that which is) rubbed away”), from dēterō (“rub away”).

Words from the same roots

Latindētrītus all →

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.