Etymologically
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friction

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Pronunciation

  • /ˈfɹɪkʃən/[1]

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
  • 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