the.com/polishing
The slow violence of making things shine by wearing them away.
means The act of rubbing a surface smooth and glossy, or by extension refining something to its final, finished form.
from From the verb 'polish,' which came into English through Old French 'poliss-,' the stem of 'polir,' itself descended from Latin 'polire,' meaning to smooth, refine, or make even. The '-ing' is the ordinary English suffix turning the verb into the act of doing it. The same Latin root quietly underlies 'polite' — a person 'polished' into smoothness of manner, the rough edges worn away by social friction rather than cloth and grit.
- physics
- It works by abrasion, removing microscopic layers
- diamond truth
- Only diamond can polish diamond
- french method
- French polish uses shellac and decades of patience
- optics
- Telescope mirrors polished to atomic-level smoothness
- etymology
- From Latin polire, meaning to make smooth
anish kapoor's cloud gate — 1,000+ people daily polish the stainless steel 'bean' sculpture in chicago to maintain its mirror finish
smithsonian marble floors — custodial teams polish 2+ million square feet of marble daily across washington dc museums