Fricative – from the Latin for “to rub” – refers to a hissing or buzzing sound produced by forcing air through a narrow space. In phonetics, a fricative is a consonant sound made by directing a stream of air with the tongue towards the teeth – e.g., the Z in zoo and the S in said. As used by Elizabeth McCracken in her short story Property: “[She] was a short, slightly creased, ponytailed blond woman in a baseball cap and a gleaming, fricative black tracksuit that suggested somewhere a husband dressed in the exact same outfit.”