Pollution

Pronunciation

Origin

Recorded since c.1340, as "discharge of semen other than during sex," later, "desecration, defilement" (1382), from Late Latin pollutio "defilement," from Latin polluere "to soil, defile, contaminate", itself from por- "before" + -luere "to smear" (related to lutum "mud" and to lues "filth", compare Greek (lyma) "filth, dirt, disgrace" and (lymax) "rubbish, refuse," Old Irish loth "mud, dirt," Lithuanian lutynas "pool, puddle"). Meaning "make physically foul" is from 1540s. Sense of "contamination of the environment" first recorded c.1860, but not common until c.1955

Full definition of pollution

Noun

1. The act of polluting or the state of being polluted, especially the contamination of the environment by harmful substances.
• 2006, w, Internal Combustion Chapter 1, If successful, Edison and Ford—in 1914—would move society away from the...hazards of gasoline cars: air and water pollution, noise and noxiousness, constant coughing and the undeniable rise in cancers caused by smoke exhaust particulates.
2. Nobody visits the river any more because of all the pollution.
3. Something that pollutes; a pollutant.
4. (archaic) Physical defilement.
5. (medicine, obsolete) The emission of semen at other times than in sexual intercourse.
• 1839: Robley Dunglison, Medical Lexicon, Blanchard, p. 492 defines POLLUTION as:The excretion of seminal liquor or sperm, at other times than during coition. When occasioned by a voluntary act it is called, simply, Pollution or Masturbation (q.v.); when excited, during sleep, by lascivious dreams, it takes the name Noctur'nal pollution, Exoneiro'sis, Oneirog'mos, Oneirog'onos, GonorrhÅ“'a dormien'tium, G. oneirog'onos, G. Vera, G. libidino'sa, Proflu'vium Sem'inis, SpermatorrhÅ“'a, Paronir'ia salax, Night pollution.

Synonyms

• soilage
• (masturbation) self-pollution

Antonyms

• conservation
• purity

Derived terms

• air pollution
• light pollution
• noise pollution
• self-pollution
• soil pollution
• water pollution

Related terms

• polluter