Detergere

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. Removing or wiping away dirt, stains, or impurities from a surface or object; cleansing or purifying something to restore its original state; erasing or obliterating marks, traces, or evidence from a particular area or context
2. To clean or rid an item of unwanted residues or blemishes; to make something free from contaminations or flaws; to eliminate signs or remnants as if they never existed
3. Cleansing an object or material by removing unwanted substances, restoring cleanliness; purifying an area or object for a fresh start; making something invisible or non-existent through thorough removal

Etymology: "Detergere" is a Latin verb built from the prefix "de-", meaning "away" or "down", and "tergere", "to wipe" or "to rub clean". So its literal sense is "to wipe off" or "to wipe away", and it carried the idea of cleaning a surface by rubbing. The Latin verb is the source of the English "deterge", which in medical and older English usage still means to cleanse a wound or surface of foreign matter. The root "tergere" is also behind "terse" through a different route: Latin "tersus" means "wiped clean" or "polished", and English borrowed it with the sense of smooth and clean, which later shifted toward a neat, concise style of writing. The shared origin is a useful reminder that a word about wiping can become a word about polished speech.

Synonyms: clean, wipe, wash, rinse, scrub

Antonyms: dirty, soil, contaminate, pollute