Abradability

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. The quality or characteristic of a material to withstand being abraded or worn away
2. A measurement of how easily a surface can be eroded through friction or rubbing
3. The extent to which a substance can resist damage from contact with other materials during a scrubbing or scraping process

Etymology: Abradability is a rare word, and the mechanics of its formation are plain: it is built from "abrade" plus the suffix "-ability," which English uses to turn adjectives like "readable" or "breakable" into nouns of quality. "Abrade" itself comes from the Latin "abradere," meaning "to scrape off," formed from "ab-" ("off, away") and "radere" ("to scrape"). The same Latin root gives English "rase" and "erase," which share the sense of removing a surface by scraping. The word "abradable" is the adjective from which "abradability" is derived, and the noun simply names the property of being abradable. Because it is a regular formation from common parts, it needs no separate coinage story; its meaning follows directly from the parts that make it up.