the.com/razor blade

means A thin, sharp-edged strip of metal used for cutting hair close to the skin, especially in a shaving razor.

from 'Razor' traces back through Old French 'rasor' to Latin 'radere,' meaning to scrape or shave — the same root that gives us 'erase.' 'Blade' comes from Old English 'blæd,' originally meaning a leaf, extended early on to the flat, leaf-shaped cutting edge of a tool or weapon. The compound itself is a modern pairing, rising with the safety razor industry in the early 1900s, when the blade became a separate, replaceable sliver of steel rather than part of one solid instrument — the shift that made the 'cheap handle, profitable blade' business model possible in the first place.