Where does “pollute” come from?
Pollute comes from Middle English polluten, from Latin pollutum, the past participle of polluo, meaning to soil or defile, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European lewh₃-, meaning to wash.
pollute (English): To make something harmful, especially by the...
Definitions
- To make something harmful, especially by the...
Ancestry of “pollute”, step by step
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Middle English | polluten | To ruin the sacred; to desecrate |
| 2 | Middle French | pollution | — |
| 3 | Latin | pollūtiō | pollution, contamination, defilement |
| 4 | Latin | -tiō | tion, -ation, -ing |
| 5 | Latin | dissertātiō | (spoken) dissertation, discourse, disquisition |
| 6 | Latin | dissertus | arranged, disposed; explained |
| 7 | Latin | disserere | second-person singular future passive indicative... |
| 8 | Latin | dis- | asunder, apart, in two; reversal, removal;... |
| 9 | Latin | calceus | shoe |
| 10 | Latin | calx | limestone; chalk; the finish line |
| 11 | Ancient Greek | χάλιξ | small stone, pebble; gravel, rubble |