From Latin ērādere 'to scrape out' — rubber erasers only replaced bread crumbs for this purpose in 1770.
A piece of rubber or other material used for removing pencil marks.
From erase + -er. The verb erase comes from Latin ērāsus, past participle of ērādere 'to scrape out,' from ex- 'out' + rādere 'to scrape.' Before rubber erasers (introduced in 1770 by Edward Nairne), people used bread crumbs to remove pencil marks. Key roots: *rēd- (Proto-Indo-European: "to scrape, scratch").