pollution

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   The harmful contamination of the air, water, or land with dirty or dangerous substances.

   Pollution levels are almost always higher in cities than in the countryside.

2. 2
   noun

   The act or process of making the environment dirty and harmful.

   New laws aim to reduce the pollution of our rivers.

From Middle English pollucioun, pollucion (“desecration, impurity”), from Anglo-Norman pollutiun, Middle French pollution, pollucion, and their source, post-classical Latin pollūtiō (“defilement, desecration; nocturnal emission”) (4th century), from the participial stem of polluō (“to soil, defile, contaminate”), from por- (“before”) + -luō (“to smear”), related to lutum (“mud”) and luēs (“filth”). Compare Ancient Greek λῦμα (lûma, “filth, dirt, disgrace”) and λῦμαξ (lûmax, “rubbish, refuse”), Old Irish loth (“mud, dirt”), Lithuanian lutynas (“pool, puddle”).

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