corrode

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English corroden,^[2][3][4] borrowed from Latin corrōdō (“to gnaw away, gnaw to pieces”),^{[5][3][4][6][7]} and, according to Etymonline, Barnhart and the Middle English Dictionary, also borrowed from Old French corroder.^[8][9][2] The OED compares French only from the 16th century, in Paré.^[5] The Latin verb is formed from com-, here intensive, and rōdō (“to gnaw”),^[5][3][8][6] from Proto-Indo-European *rēd-,^[3] which is also the source of erode, rodent and rostrum,^[10][11] and akin to rat.^[4][12]

Earliest recorded meaning

In medicine, to eat away living tissue, said of sharp blood or ulcers: before 1400 in the Middle English Dictionary and about 1400 in the OED, in Lanfranc's surgery, where scharp blood not oonli corrodiþ fleisch in woundis, but also hool fleisch.^[2][5] Etymonline and Dictionary.com date the word to the late 14th century.^[8][13]

Semantic evolution

Although the Latin verb meant "to gnaw", the English word was first medical, for diseases and corrosive remedies.^[2][5] The literal use of an animal gnawing or eating into something appears later and was obsolete by 1746.^[5] The modern chemical sense, of acids or rust acting on metal, dates from 1594.^[5] Johnson (1755) defined the verb as "To eat away by degrees, as a menstruum", quoting Boyle on aqua-fortis corroding copper.^[14] From 1652 to 1781 it was also said of water and currents, in the sense of erode.^[5][15] The figurative sense is recorded before 1631, in Donne,^[5] and Etymonline dates it to the 1630s.^[8] The intransitive use "to become corroded" came only in 1819, in W. Irving's Sketch Book.^[5]

Timeline

• c. 1400 – to eat away tissue, of disease.^[5][2]
• 1555 – to gnaw away, of an animal (obsolete by 1746).^[5][15]
• 1594 – of chemicals or rust acting on metal.^[5]
• 1610 – without an object, to have a corrosive effect.^[5]
• before 1631 – figuratively, to destroy gradually.^[5][8]
• 1652 – of water and currents, to wear away (obsolete by 1781).^[5]
• 1819 – intransitive, to become corroded.^[5]

Meanings

Verb

1. To destroy a metal or other material gradually, especially by oxidation or chemical action: Salt spray had corroded the railings.^{[3][12][4][5]}
2. To wear down or destroy gradually in a non-physical way: Years of suspicion corroded their friendship.^{[12][3][15][5]}
3. To become worn away in this way; to suffer corrosion: Iron corrodes quickly in sea air.^[12][5]
4. (obsolete, 1555–1746) Of an animal, to eat into or gnaw away.^[5][15]
5. (obsolete, 1652–1781) Of water, to erode.^[5][15]

Word family

• corrodible
• corrodent
• corroder
• corrodibility
• noncorroding

Related words

• corrosion
• corrosive
• erode
• rodent
• rostrum
• rat

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b c d e f The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
4. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
9. ^ Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
10. ^ Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
11. ^ Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
12. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
13. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
14. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
15. ^ a b c d e Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press