English

Noun

grattage ‎(countable and uncountable, plural grattages)

1. (surgery) The scraping away of granulations (from an ulcer etc.) in order to stimulate healing.
   • 1891 October 24, John E. Weeks, “The surgical treatment of granulated lids”, in New York Medical Journal, volume 54, page 456:

     August 18th.—Operation by "grattage" without ether. The pain experienced by the patient was quite severe.

   • 1894, “Progress of Medical Science”, in The American Journal of the Medical Sciences, page 334:

     Among those vaccinated by piqûre (sticking) a very small number only contracted the disease, and in these it was mild, while in those vaccinated by grattage it was, in general, severe.

   • 1897 July 24, J. A. Bach, “The surgical treatment of granular conjunctivitis”, in The Medical News, volume 71, page 110:

     The results obtained by friction or grattage, by tearing the superficial capillaries, as well as the softer pathologic elements, will cause local depletion and will greatly improve circulation and absorption.

2. (art) A technique popularized by Max Ernst involving scraping at dried paint in order to form patterns.
   • 2010, Eran Guter, Aesthetics A-Z, page 25:

     Automatism in art can arise quite deliberately from manual techniques (such as frottage, grattage and decalcomania in the visual arts, algorithmic or statistical procedures in musical composition, or random verbal collages in poetry) or accidentally from altered states of consciousness (for example, intoxication, hallucination, trance and ecstasy).

   • 2013, M. E. Warlick, Max Ernst and Alchemy: A Magician in Search of Myth, page 193:

     These same forest images appeared when he adapted his frottage technique to the roughly rubbed and scratched painting techniques of grattage.

   • 2013, Ralph Ubl, Prehistoric Future: Max Ernst and the Return of Painting between the Wars:

     They test the possibilities of collage, frottage, grattage, different methods of painting and printing, but also wordplay—and the mutual imitation and intersection ofthese devices.

Related terms

• frottage

French

Etymology

gratter +‎ -age

Noun

grattage f ‎(plural grattages)

1. scraping, scratching
2. erasure
3. grattage