the.com/wear
The slow negotiation between fabric and time, where time always wins.
means To have clothing or an object on your body, or to gradually damage something through steady use and friction.
from From Old English 'werian,' meaning to carry or put on clothes, which traces back to a very old Germanic root also tied to the idea of covering or defending the body — the same root family gives related words in other Germanic languages. The 'wearing down' sense (erosion, fatigue, exhaustion) grew naturally alongside the clothing sense over centuries, since cloth and shoes visibly deteriorate the more they're used — a meaning extension so intuitive it hardly needed inventing.
- vs tear
- wear is friction over years, tear is violence in a second
- denim proof
- raw denim fades exactly where your body bends it
- shoe physics
- outsoles erode unevenly because you walk lopsided, always
- etymology
- old english werian meant to defend, not just dress