• detritus •
Pronunciation: di-trai-tês • Hear it!
Part of Speech: Noun, mass
Meaning: 1. Loose pieces of rock and such worn away by rubbing or weathering. 2. Left-over debris or waste matter from anything.
Notes: This odd little word comes from a dysfunctional family: the noun is detrition, but there is no verb to detrite, as we might expect. It is cousin to detriment, since too much rubbing is a detriment to most objects. Just avoid confusing the ending -us on this noun with the more common adjective ending -ous, which is pronounced the same way.
In Play: Detritus is first and foremost the left-over waste from physical activity of some kind: "Milligan doesn't clean up his shop until the detritus from all his wood-working projects is knee-deep." More broadly, though, this word can refer to the refuse of anything, concrete or abstract: "The network talk shows today amount to the detritus of political thought, ideas thought up and discarded years ago."
Word History: Detritus is the past participle of Latin deterere "to wear down, to lessen" (unrelated to deter). This verb is composed of de- "(away) from" + terere "to rub", which makes the origin of the meaning is clear. The same root turns up in Russian teret' "to rub" but came down to English with a suffix, leading to our words thresh and thrash, which is to rub very hard, indeed. Without the prefix de-, today's word is tritus "worn out", which English wore down to trite, while significantly altering its meaning to "trivial and banal".
DETRITUS
- Dr. Goodword
- Site Admin
- Posts: 7451
- Joined: Wed Feb 02, 2005 9:28 am
- Location: Lewisburg, PA
- Contact:
DETRITUS
• The Good Dr. Goodword
- Slava
- Great Grand Panjandrum
- Posts: 8107
- Joined: Thu Sep 28, 2006 9:31 am
- Location: Finger Lakes, NY
If I remember correctly, I first learned this word in school while reading about glaciers and the rocks they leave behind as they melt.
I also made the mistake of pronouncing it as DETritus, but I know better now.
I also made the mistake of pronouncing it as DETritus, but I know better now.
Life is like playing chess with chessmen who each have thoughts and feelings and motives of their own.
Return to “Good Word Discussion”
Who is online
Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 122 guests