detritus

From Latin dētrītus (“(that which is) rubbed away”), from dēterō (“rub away”).

• IPA^(key): /dɪˈtɹaɪ.təs/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -aɪtəs

detritus (usually uncountable, plural detritus or (rare) detrita)

1. (countable, chiefly geology) Pieces of rock broken off by ice, glacier, or erosion.
2. (biology, ecology) Organic waste material from decomposing dead plants or animals.
   • 2009, Christian Wirth, Gerd Gleixner, Martin Heimann, Old-Growth Forests: Function, Fate and Value, Springer Science & Business Media, →ISBN, page 159:

     Woody detritus is an important component of forested ecosystems. It can reduce erosion and affects soil development, stores nutrients and water, provides a major source of energy and nutrients, and serves as a seedbed for plants and as a major habitat for decomposers and hetereotrophs.

3. (by extension) Any debris or fragments of disintegrated material.
   • 2001, Chip Kidd, The Cheese Monkeys:

     But of course: no clutter. No newspapers, no renegade scraps of domestic detritus, no rubber bands, paper clips, coupons, pens or pencils, notebooks, magazines. No knives. Where were the knives?

   • 2022 September 7, Tom Allett, “At the cutting edge of NR's track work”, in RAIL, number 965, page 39:

     The cutting head removes any chips out of the railhead and restores the required surface shape. The trains also clear up their own detritus as they travel. Neither milling chips nor grinding dust remain on the track.

4. Rock consisting of accumulated debris from decayed rocks, like sand, that often is joined by cement.

• detritus on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

From dēterō (“rub away”), from dē (“away”) + terō (“rub”).

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /deːˈtriː.tus/,
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /deˈtri.tus/,

dētrītus (feminine dētrīta, neuter dētrītum); first/second-declension participle

1. rubbed away, worn away, worn out, having been rubbed away
2. (figuratively) diminished in force, lessened, weakened, impaired, having been weakened
3. (figuratively) worn out, trite, hackneyed, having been worn out

First/second-declension adjective.

dētrītus m (genitive dētrītūs); fourth declension

1. The act of rubbing away

Fourth-declension noun.

• dēterō
• dētrīmentōsus
• dētrīmentum

• “detritus”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “detritus”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• detritus in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.

Borrowed from French détritus, from Latin detritus.

detritus n (uncountable)

1. detritus

• detrito

Borrowed from Latin dētrītus.

• IPA^(key): /deˈtɾitus/
• Rhymes: -itus
• Syllabification: de‧tri‧tus

detritus m (plural detritus)

1. detritus

• “detritus”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 2024 December 10