friction

Etymology

It is borrowed from Middle French friction,^{[2][3][4][5][6]} itself from Latin frictiō (“a rubbing, rubbing down”),^[7][8][9] a noun of action from frictus, the past participle of fricō (“to rub, rub down”).^{[9][7][10][11]} Etymonline and Barnhart hold that English also took it directly from Latin.^[7][8] The Latin verb is related to friō (“to rub, crumble”), the source of friable,^[5][11][12] and Merriam-Webster compares Old Irish brissim (“I break”).^[11] Etymonline calls its further origin uncertain, citing a suggestion of Watkins that it comes from a PIE root meaning "to rub, break".^[7] Klein connects it with fray, fricative, affricate and the second part of dentifrice.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The chafing or rubbing of the body or limbs, much used in medical treatment: Barnhart dates it to 1563 and Etymonline to the 1560s,^[8][7] the OED to 1581, in R. Mulcaster's Positions.^[2][6]

Semantic evolution

The medical sense was still the first in Johnson's time: he defined the word as the rubbing of two bodies together, the resistance in machines caused by one body moving on another, and medical rubbing with a flesh-brush.^[13] The general sense "rubbing of one body against another" is recorded from 1718, in the second edition of Newton's Opticks,^[2] and Barnhart notes that Newton alludes to the principle in 1704.^[8] The physical sense, the resistance a body meets in moving over another, follows in 1722.^[2][8][7] The figurative sense of clashing opinions or temperaments appears in Sterne's Tristram Shandy in 1760 according to the OED, in 1761 according to Barnhart and Etymonline.^[2][8][7] In hairdressing a friction is a massage of the scalp (1931),^[2] and Collins also records a perfumed alcohol rubbed into the hair.^[14] The verb, to rub, is recorded from 1842, and in textiles to coat fabric with rubber from 1881.^[2][11]

Timeline

• 1563 – chafing or rubbing (Barnhart).^[8]
• 1581 – rubbing of the body or limbs, in medicine (OED).^[2]
• 1718 – the rubbing of one body against another.^[2]
• 1722 – the resistance of a body moving over another.^[2][8][7]
• 1760 – figurative, conflict or discord.^[2]
• 1842 – verb, to move with friction, to rub.^[2]
• 1881 – verb, to coat fabric with rubber.^[2]
• 1931 – a scalp massage.^[2]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. The resistance met by a body moving over another body it is in contact with.
2. The act of rubbing one thing against another.
3. Disagreement or conflict between people or groups; discord: There was friction between the two departments.
4. Anything that makes a process slower or harder: new rules that add friction to cross-border trade.
5. (phonetics) The hissing element of a speech sound such as a fricative.
6. (hairdressing) A massage of the scalp, or a perfumed alcohol used for it.

Verb

1. (textiles) To coat fabric with rubber by pressing it through rollers.

Word family

• frictional
• frictionally
• frictionless
• frictionlessly
• antifriction
• interfriction
• nonfriction
• stiction

Related words

• fray
• fricative
• affricate
• dentifrice
• friable
• frication

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
5. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
6. ^ a b Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
8. ^ a b c d e f g h Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
9. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
10. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
12. ^ Partridge, Eric (1966), Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, 4th ed., London: Routledge & Kegan Paul
13. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
14. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins