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Where does the word "friction" come from? It comes from Latin frictio, and was adopted directly into English (1500s).
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Where does the word "friction" come from? It comes from Latin frictio, and was adopted directly into English (1500s).
Friction’s story begins in Latin: frictio meant “a rubbing.” A rubbing, from fricare (to rub). It reached English by 1500s as friction. Settled as the physics word for resistance between surfaces in contact. Today, friction means the resistance one surface encounters when moving over another.
- Stage 1 · Latin · ancient frictio "a rubbing", a rubbing, from fricare (to rub).
- Stage 2 · English · 1500s friction "resistance between surfaces in contact", settled as the physics word for resistance between surfaces in contact.