Other forms: detergents
Detergent is the powder or liquid that washes clothes and dishes clean. Washing detergent, add detergent, too much detergent.
It works because its molecules have one end that likes water and one that likes grease, so it lifts oil off surfaces into the water. Soap does the same by a different chemistry. Biological detergent contains enzymes that break down protein stains. Note that using too much detergent leaves residue and washes no better, which is the single commonest laundry mistake; and that phosphates were removed from detergents to protect rivers.
1noundetergentA powder or liquid used to wash things clean.
“About half as much detergent works about as well.”
detergent is a cleaning substance.
Latin detergens comes from detergere, to wipe away — de- plus tergere, to wipe. The name describes the action rather than the chemistry, which was not understood until long afterwards.
Latin
dētergēns
French
détergent
English, today
detergent
Built from
From French détergent, from Latin dētergēns, the present participle of dētergeō, from dē (“off”) + tergeō (“wipe, polish”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA