frottage means A method of making an image by placing a piece of paper against an object and then rubbing over it, usually with a pencil or charcoal. Lexicurio rates it Sui generis — a strength score of 89 out of 100.
frottage is pronounced /ˈfrɒtɑːʒ/.
Why “frottage” is a great word
FROTTAGE — [Noun] An artistic technique for creating an image by rubbing a medium over paper laid on a textured surface, or the practice of obtaining sexual stimulation by rubbing against another person. From French frottage ("rubbing"), from frotter ("to rub") + -age (noun-forming suffix). First attested in English in 1935. Unlike grattage (which scrapes away to reveal what lies beneath) or tribadism (which specifies a gendered, genital act), frottage is an act of acquisition through pressure. It is the ghostly grain of a tombstone captured in graphite, the clandestine press of a thigh in a crowded train car, and the slow revelation of a leaf’s veins from beneath a page—a testament to how contact leaves its persistent impression.
noun
- A method of making an image by placing a piece of paper against an object and then rubbing over it, usually with a pencil or charcoal.
- An illustration made by means of frottage.
- The practice of rubbing parts of the body against those of another person for sexual stimulation.
verb
- To rub, especially to rub onto one surface placed upon another surface that is textured, in order to create a mottled or patterned area on the first surface.
- To rub parts of the body against those of another person for sexual stimulation.