pollution

Etymology

From Middle English pollucion, 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”).

noun

1. Physical contamination, now especially the contamination of the environment by harmful substances, or by disruptive levels of noise, light etc.
   Pollution levels are almost always higher in cities rather than the countryside, what with the cars, industry and so on.
   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. 2006, Edwin Black, chapter 1, in Internal Combustion
   Schools across the country are moving to ban the school run amid growing concern about the devastating impact of air pollution on young people’s health. 13 July 2018, Matthew Taylor, The Guardian
   Pollution now kills three times as many people worldwide as Aids, tuberculosis and malaria combined. 2019, George Monbiot, “Cars are killing us. Within 10 years, we must phase them out”, in Guardian.
   Flying only looks like a bargain because the cost of pollution is so cheap. August 9 2023, “Network News: Network rail under fire for spending thousands of pounds on flights”, in RAIL, number 989, page 15
2. Something that pollutes; a pollutant.
3. (now rare) The desecration of something holy or sacred; defilement, profanation.
4. (now archaic) The ejaculation of semen outside of sexual intercourse, especially a nocturnal emission.
   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, Gonorrhœ'a dormien'tium, G. oneirog'onos, G. Vera, G. libidino'sa, Proflu'vium Sem'inis, Spermatorrhœ'a, Paronir'ia salax, Night pollution. 1839, Robley Dunglison, Medical Lexicon, Blanchard, page 492
5. Moral or spiritual corruption; impurity, degradation, defilement.