Erase

Part of speech: verb

Pronunciation: /ɪˈɹeɪs/

Definitions

1. To remove or eliminate completely, either by rubbing away written marks or by deleting information from a record or memory
2. To eliminate or wipe away something, whether it be physical writing or digital information in records and memories
3. To remove or cancel out items, such as written material or stored data in a device or mind

Etymology: Erase began as a scraping action. Its Latin ancestor, "ērādere," combined "ex-" ("out of") with "radere" ("to scrape"), so to erase was literally to scrape something out of a surface. Ancient writers worked on wax tablets and parchment, where a stylus or knife could scratch away ink or letters, and the word described exactly that physical job. The English verb arrived as a borrowing from the past participle "ērāsus," and it was not the first English word for the idea. Middle English had "arasen" and "aracen," meaning to eradicate or erase, and the Latin-derived form gradually displaced the native Old English "dilegian" (which meant something like to blot out or destroy). The root "radere" also gave English "rase," a relative that survives in the sense of razing a building to the ground, and "rasp" comes from the same ancestry.

Synonyms: delete, remove, obliterate

Antonyms: retain, preserve