'erosion-promoting' originates from a combination of the noun 'erosion' (from Latin, specifically the word 'erosio' / 'erodere') and the verb 'promote' (from Latin, specifically the word 'promovere'), where Latin 'erodere' meant 'to gnaw away' and the prefix 'pro-' in 'promovere' meant 'forward' while 'movere' meant 'to move'.

'erosion' came into English via Latin 'erosio' (from Classical/Medieval Latin) meaning 'a gnawing away'; 'promote' evolved from Latin 'promovere' → Old French 'promouvoir' → Middle English 'promoven/promote', and the modern hyphenated compound 'erosion-promoting' is a recent English formation combining the two.

Initially 'erosion' referred to literal 'gnawing away' and 'promote' to 'move forward or encourage'; the compound originally conveyed the literal idea of encouraging a wearing-away process and now denotes anything that tends to increase or favor erosion.