Etymograph

English

detritus

Detritus comes from Latin dētrītus ‘rubbed away’, from terō ‘to rub’, and ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *terh₁-.

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*terh₁-1‘to rub, turn’reconstructed
  2. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEterō1‘to rub’
  3. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEdēterō2‘rub away’
  4. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEdētrītus2‘rubbed away’
  5. Englishearliest quotation 2001detritus2

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, Latin detero
  2. 2 Wiktionary, English detritus
  3. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 2001, Chip Kidd: “But of course: no clutter. No newspapers, no renegade…”.

Lineage

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*terh₁-Wiktionary, Latin detero‘to rub, turn’reconstructed
  2. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEterōWiktionary, Latin detero‘to rub’
  3. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEdēterōWiktionary, English detritus‘rub away’
  4. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEdētrītusWiktionary, English detritus‘rubbed away’
  5. Englishearliest quotation 2001detritusWiktionary, English detritus. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 2001, Chip Kidd: “But of course: no clutter. No newspapers, no renegade…”

Linked words

through Proto-Indo-European *terh₁- ‘to rub, turn’

turn, throw, tournament, thread, threshold, tragic, trout, tyrone, thrash, tourney, detour, termite, triage, tourniquet, thresher, tyro, truant, thresh, contrite, derma, 41 more

through Latin terō ‘to rub’

attrition, tribulation, trite, 10 more

Today it means

noun Pieces of rock broken off by ice, glacier, or erosion.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “detritus”; the older steps come from the Wiktionary entry for Latin detero. By Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0, via kaikki.org (dump of Oct 3 2026); text adapted and restructured. Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word. License.

Etymograph / Proto-Indo-European *terh₁- / detritus

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