Nonfriable

Part of speech: adjective

Definitions

1. Substances that remain intact and do not break into smaller fragments when force is applied
2. Materials that resist disintegration and maintain their form under stress or pressure without crumbling
3. Describes a material that does not crumble or break apart under mechanical pressure or stress

Etymology: "Nonfriable" is simply the prefix "non-" attached to "friable," meaning "not friable." Friable itself comes from the Latin "friabilis," from "friare," to crumble or rub into crumbs, so the word describes things that crumble easily, such as dry soil or certain rocks. Adding "non-" reverses that sense, producing a term for materials that hold together under stress. The pairing is a practical one. Geologists, engineers and materials scientists often need to distinguish between substances that crumble and those that resist breaking, and a negated adjective does that job without inventing a new root. Much of the technical vocabulary built this way follows the same pattern, with a negative prefix placed on an established descriptive term.

Synonyms: durable, stable, firm, solid, resilient

Antonyms: friable, crumbly, brittle, fragile, weak