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pollution

noun
/pəˈljuːʃən/UK/pəˈluʃən/US

Etymology

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”).

  1. derived from pollūtiō
  2. derived from pollution
  3. derived from pollutiun
  4. inherited from pollucioun

Definitions

  1. Physical contamination, now especially the contamination of the environment by harmful…

    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.
    • 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.

  2. Something that pollutes

    Something that pollutes; a pollutant.

  3. The desecration of something holy or sacred

    The desecration of something holy or sacred; defilement, profanation.

    • Men who attend the Altar, and should most / Endevor Peace: thir strife pollution brings / Upon the Temple it self […].
    • [T]he most gallant knights that ever wielded sword wasted their lives away in a struggle to seize it and hold it sacred from infidel pollution.
  4. ›+ 2 more definitions

    1. The ejaculation of semen outside of sexual intercourse, especially a nocturnal emission.

      • According to Billuart and other theologians, pollution in sleep is not sin, unless voluntarily caused; if, however, it begins in sleep, and is completed in the half-waking state, with a sense of pleasure, it is a venial sin.

    2. Moral or spiritual corruption

      Moral or spiritual corruption; impurity, degradation, defilement.

      • She condescended to wait on them at Pemberley, in spite of that pollution which its woods had received.

The neighborhood

Derived

agropollution, air pollution, antipollution, biopollution, electropollution, genetic pollution, hydropollution, light pollution, nocturnal pollution, noise pollution, nonpollution, overpollution, photopollution, pollutician, pollutional, pollutionary, pollution-free, pollutionist, pollutionless, pollution permit system, self-pollution, soil pollution, underpollution, visual pollution, water pollution

Vish — recursive loop

A definitional loop anchored at pollution. Each word in the ring is defined by the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself. Scroll to it and watch.

01pollution02contamination03contaminates04contaminate05impurities06impurity

A definitional loop anchored at pollution. Each word in the ring appears in the definition of the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself.

6 hops · closes at pollution

curated · pre-corpus. live cycle detection across the full graph is the next major milestone.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA