abstersion

/æbˈstɜː.ʒn̩/

Etymology

From Middle English abstersioun, from either Old French or Medieval Latin abstertion, from Latin abstersus, past participle of abstergēo (“to wipe off or away”).

Why this word is great

ABSTERSION — [Noun] The act of wiping clean; a cleansing or purging. From Middle English abstersioun, from Old French abstersion or Medieval Latin abstersion-, from Latin abstersus, past participle of abstergēre ("to wipe off or away"). Unlike "purification" (which implies transcendence) or "expurgation" (which targets the offensive), abstersion is the humble labor of the sponge, the rag, the hand. It is the damp cloth erasing chalk from a blackboard, the janitor mopping streaks of mud from linoleum, or the slow, methodical clearing of fog from a windshield—each stroke a small defiance against the world’s insistence on leaving marks, a quiet rebellion that whispers: here, at least, is order.

noun

Act of wiping clean; a cleansing; a purging.“Waverley ... was offered the patriarchal refreshment of a bath for the feet ... He was not, indeed, so luxuriously attended upon this occasion as the heroic travellers in the Odyssey; the task of ablution and abstersion being performed, not by a beautiful damsel, trained To chafe the limb, and pour the fragrant oil, but by a smoke-dried skinny old Highland woman, who did not seem to think herself ”