This week’s theme
Counterpart words

This week’s words
materteral
attrite
autonym
exoteric
spear side

Send a gift that
keeps on giving,
all year long:
A gift subscription of A.Word.A.Day or the gift of books

---

A.Word.A.Day

PRONUNCIATION:

(uh-TRYT)

MEANING:

adjective: Regretting one’s wrongdoing only because of the fear of punishment.
verb tr., intr.: also attrit (uh-TRIT)
1. To wear down, erode, or weaken through sustained attacks, friction, etc.
2. To reduce the size of a workforce by not replacing those who leave.
3. To drop out from a course of study, job, training, etc.

ETYMOLOGY:

From Latin attritus (worn down), past participle of atterere (to rub against), from at- (to/toward) + terere (to rub). Earliest documented use: 1475. A counterpart of the adjectival form of this word is contrite, describing someone who is genuinely repentant.

USAGE:

“His heart is ‘attrite’ ... there will be parts of his life that he must deeply regret, parts that will not fit.”
Philip Kitcher; Joyce’s Kaleidoscope; Oxford University Press; 2009.

“Would it be death by 100 cuts as they nicked up the rent and attrited our spirit with a collapsed infrastructure (the toilet at my end of the hall had been clogged for a month) or would they simply burst in and begin defenestrating us?”
Larry Duberstein; The Day the Bozarts Died; Permanent Press; 2015.

“The coastline shifts, sands attrite and recede with little regard to human desires.”
Dominick Mazzagetti; The Jersey Shore; Rutgers University Press; 2018.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: