erode (v.)

1610s, "gnaw or eat away" (transitive), a back-formation from erosion, or else from French éroder, from Latin erodere "to gnaw away, consume," from assimilated form of ex "away" (see ex-) + rodere "to gnaw" (possibly from an extended form of PIE root *red- "to scrape, scratch, gnaw"). Intransitive sense "become worn away" is by 1905. Related: Eroded; eroding. Originally of acids, ulcers, etc.; geological sense is from 1830.