Etymology

erase

E1R1A1S1E1

Today it means: To remove (markings or information). Full definition →

Latin ērāsus ← Proto-Italic *razdō ← Proto-Indo-European *h₁éǵʰs
Ask AI about its historyChatGPTClaudePerplexityGoogle AIGrok

The story

  1. Proto-Indo-European*h₁éǵʰ
  2. Proto-Indo-European*h₁éǵʰs
  3. Proto-Italic*eks
  4. Latinex
  5. Latinex-
  6. Proto-Italic*razdō
  7. Latinradō
  8. Latinērādō
  9. Latinērāsus
  10. English todayerase

From Latin ērāsus, past participle of ērādere (“to scrape, to abrade”), from ex- (“out of”) + radere (“to scrape”). Compare Middle English arasen, aracen (“to eradicate, erase”). Displaced native Old English dilegian.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.