frottage
/ˈfrɒtɑːʒ/verb, noun
frottage is a verb meaning “To rub, especially to rub onto one surface placed upon another surface that is textured, in order to create a mottled or patterned area on the first…” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is spelled F-R-O-T-T-A-G-E, and it appears about once in every 30 million words in written English (wordfreq, 2021 data).
What does frottage mean?
verb
- 1
To rub, especially to rub onto one surface placed upon another surface that is textured, in order to create a mottled or patterned area on the first surface.
- 2
To rub parts of the body against those of another person for sexual stimulation.
noun
- 1
A method of making an image by placing a piece of paper against an object and then rubbing over it, usually with a pencil or charcoal.
- 2
An illustration made by means of frottage.
- 3
The practice of rubbing parts of the body against those of another person for sexual stimulation.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How do you pronounce frottage?
- /ˈfrɒtɑːʒ/
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Flame,_not_lame-frottage.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of frottage
- frottages present, singular, he/she/it, plural
- frottaging participle, present
- frottaged participle, past
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How common is frottage?
Frottage appears about once in every 30 million words in written English, the 167,786th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Where does frottage come from?
From French frottage (“rubbing”), from frotter (“to rub”) + -age (suffix forming nouns).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).