Meaning

verb mark for deletion, rub off, or erase

verb make undecipherable or imperceptible by obscuring or concealing

verb remove completely from recognition or memory

originPIE word *h₁epi (start of 17th century) From earlier obliterat, learned borrowing from Latin obliterātus, oblitterātus (“having been blotted out, effaced, erased; having been forgotten”) (see -ate (verb-forming suffix, of participial origin)). Obliterātus and oblitterātus are respectively the perfect passive participles of obliterō and oblitterō (“to blot out, efface, erase, obliterate; to cause…

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 3.0