erasure

Etymology

It is formed from English erase + -ure.^{[2][3][4][5][6]} The verb erase, recorded from about 1600, is from Latin ērāsus (“scraped out”), the past participle of ērādō (“to scrape out, scrape off”), from ex (“out”) and rādō (“to scrape”), the source of raze.^[3][2] The older noun rasure, the act of scraping out, is recorded from about 1400.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

An instance of erasing or obliterating: 1734, in a translation of Charles Rollin's Ancient History.^[2] Merriam-Webster and Etymonline also date the word to 1734,^[4][3] and Dictionary.com to 1725–35.^[6]

Semantic evolution

The action of erasing is recorded from 1755, in Edward Young's The Centaur Not Fabulous,^[2] and a rare figurative sense, total destruction or wiping out, in Gibbon before 1794.^[2] The concrete sense, the place on a page where something has been erased, was first given in the OED's own example (1891);^[2] the Shorter Oxford dates it to the late 19th century.^[5] From 1950 the word was used of removing a recording from magnetic tape.^[2] Wiktionary also records a recent use for the ignoring or concealing of a group or element of society.^[1]

Timeline

• 1734 – an instance of erasing or obliterating.^[2][4]
• 1755 – the action of erasing.^[2]
• before 1794 – total destruction, wiping out (rare).^[2]
• by 1891 – the place where a word or letter has been erased.^[2]
• 1950 – the removal of a recording from magnetic tape.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. The act or an instance of erasing; deletion or obliteration: The erasure of the old entries took the clerk an afternoon.^[7][4][2]
2. The removal of recorded material from a magnetic tape or other medium.^[2][4]
3. The place or mark where something has been erased.^[7][4][2][5]
4. The state of having been erased.^[8][1]
5. The ignoring or concealment of a group or element of society.^[1]
6. (rare) Total destruction.^[2]

Word family

• nonerasure

Related words

• erase
• eraser
• rasure
• raze
• razor
• abrade

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
7. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
8. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin