detergent: [17] A detergent is literally something that ‘wipes away’. The word comes from dētergent-, the present participial stem of Latin dētergēre, a compound verb formed from dē- ‘away’ and tergēre ‘wipe’ (its past participle produced English terse). English detergent originally meant simply ‘cleansing agent’ (used particularly in a medical or surgical context); the specific application to a cleanser made from synthetic chemical compounds (as opposed to soap, which is made from fats and lye) is a 20thcentury development. => terse[detergent etymology, detergent origin, 英语词源]