Physics and forces

The eleventh entry is l’attrito, and it looks like « attrition ». It is not. Both go back to atterere, to rub against, to wear away — ad plus terere, to rub — but the two descendants ended up in different trades. In English, « attrition » is a wearing down over time and nothing else: a war of attrition, a workforce reduced by attrition as people leave and are not replaced. It is never the quantity in a physics problem. That quantity is « friction », from the other Latin verb for rubbing, fricare. And here the two languages cross, because Italian has that word as well: la frizione is the clutch of a car, the pedal on the left, and also a brisk rub with alcohol. It is not friction. So the set has to be learnt whole and backwards — l’attrito is friction, la frizione is the clutch, and « attrition » belongs in no physics text at all. One consolation: the figurative sense matches exactly. Ci sono attriti nel gruppo is friction in the team, in both languages, rubbing that makes heat between people.