Plural of rubber; elastic material made from natural or synthetic sources, or informally, condoms or galoshes.
From 'rub' plus '-er' (agent noun) plus '-s' (plural). Named 'rubber' because it was discovered to erase pencil marks by rubbing. Entered English around 1770.
The word 'rubber' came from an accidental discovery—people found that tree resin from Brazil could erase pencil marks better than bread crumbs, but nobody knew why until the chemistry of graphite was understood centuries later.
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