Corrosive

How to spell corrosive

9 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce corrosive

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does corrosive mean?

1. adjectiveCapable of gradually destroying or eating away a material, especially metal or living tissue, through chemical action.
2. adjectiveGradually damaging or undermining something abstract, such as trust, morale, or a relationship.

Corrosive in a sentence

• The cleaner is so corrosive that it strips paint from the floor.

• Constant criticism had a corrosive effect on the team's confidence.

• Battery acid is highly corrosive and should never touch bare skin.

• The corrosive resentment between the partners eventually destroyed the business.

Where does corrosive come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin verb corrodere, which combined the intensifying prefix com- (meaning thoroughly or completely) with rodere, meaning to gnaw or to eat away. The literal sense was something that gnaws right through, an image that fits acids and rusting metal perfectly. The form passed into late Latin as corrosivus and then through Old French as corrosif before settling into English in the late 1300s, originally in medical and alchemical writing about substances that ate into flesh or metal. The same rodere root that means to gnaw also lies behind the word rodent, a creature defined by its constant gnawing, and behind erode, meaning to wear away. Remembering that double r comes from the doubled com- meeting the r of rodere helps fix the spelling of the two central r's.

How the word is built

• cor- (from com-, thoroughly)
• ros (from Latin rodere, to gnaw)
• -ive (adjective suffix)