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ablation (ab-LEY-shun) - n., the process of removing or destroying (an outer layer) by cutting, abrading, evaporating, et cetera.
Glaciers ablate when they wear away, as do the outer surface of many spacecraft when they enter an atmosphere, and likewise anything being cut by a laser. First used in the 1570s as a medical term (the surgical removal of something) from Late Latin ablātiōn-, the stem of ablātiō, from Latin auferre, to carry away, from ab-, away + ferre, to carry.
---L.
Glaciers ablate when they wear away, as do the outer surface of many spacecraft when they enter an atmosphere, and likewise anything being cut by a laser. First used in the 1570s as a medical term (the surgical removal of something) from Late Latin ablātiōn-, the stem of ablātiō, from Latin auferre, to carry away, from ab-, away + ferre, to carry.
---L.
