litter

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English litere, also liter,^[2][3][4] borrowed from Anglo-Norman litere (“portable bed”),^[5][6][7][8] and Old French litiere (“litter, stretcher, bier; straw, bedding”),^[6][5][9] from Medieval Latin lectāria,^{[5][6][10][8]} from Latin lectus (“bed, couch”),^[5][6][11] from Proto-Indo-European *legh- (“to lie down”).^[6][11] Barnhart explains the French form as an alteration of an expected *leitiere under the influence of lit (“bed”),^[9][6] and the AHD analyses the Anglo-Norman word as lit with the noun suffix -iere, from -āria.^[11] The Latin noun is related to English lie,^[8][9] and the same French lit ends coverlet.^[8] Its relatives in the Romance languages include Italian lettiera and Spanish litera.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

A bed carried on poles: about 1330, in Arthour and Merlin, for a structure with a bed or seat carried by men or animals;^[5][9] the plain sense "a bed" is recorded before 1400, in the Cursor Mundi, and was obsolete by about 1500.^[5][7]

Semantic evolution

All the senses come from "bed".^[3][8] Straw or rushes laid down as bedding, for people and then for animals, were called litter from about 1430;^[5][9] Etymonline notes this sense already in Anglo-French in the early 14th century,^[6] and by the 19th century the word could mean both the straw and the dung in it.^[6][5] The young born to an animal at one time, those "bedded" together, are a litter from the Promptorium Parvulorum (about 1440),^[9][5][3][6] and Cresswell suggests the name comes from the mother giving birth in a sheltered sleeping place.^[12] The modern sense, odds and ends or rubbish lying about, appears in 1730 in Swift's Lady's Dressing-room,^[5][9][6] probably from the verb and the image of straw strewn on the floor;^[9][6][8] Cresswell links it to the straw bedding that poorer people put on the floor and threw out when soiled.^[12] The verb meant "to provide with bedding" before 1398,^[9][5] "to give birth to young" from 1484, in Caxton,^[5][6] and "to strew with things in disorder" from 1726, again in Swift.^[5] In the 20th century the noun was applied to the layer of dead leaves on a forest floor (1905) and to cat litter (1959).^[5]

Timeline

• c. 1330 – a portable bed or carriage carried by men or animals.^[5]
• a1398 – verb, to provide a horse with straw for its bed.^[5][9]
• a1400 – a bed (obsolete by 1500).^[5]
• c. 1430 – straw used as bedding for animals.^[5]
• c. 1440 – the young born at one birth.^[9][5]
• 1484 – verb, to give birth to young.^[5]
• 1726 – verb, to strew with objects in disorder.^[5]
• 1730 – odds and ends lying about; rubbish.^[5][9][6]
• 1905 – dead leaves and plant debris on the ground.^[5]
• 1959 – cat litter.^[5]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. Rubbish or waste carelessly dropped, especially in public places: The park was full of litter after the concert.
2. An untidy state, or an untidy heap of things.
3. The young born to an animal such as a sow or cat at one birth.
4. Straw or similar material used as bedding for animals; also, granular material for a pet's toilet tray.
5. A layer of partly decayed leaves and twigs on the floor of a forest.
6. A stretcher for carrying a sick or injured person; formerly, a curtained couch carried on poles.

Verb

1. To scatter rubbish or objects untidily over a place: Wrappers littered the pavement.
2. To give birth to a litter of young.
3. To provide an animal with straw for bedding.

Word family

• litterer
• antilitter
• litterbag
• litterbug
• littermate
• cat litter
• kitty litter

Related words

• coverlet
• lie

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
3. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster's Book of Word Histories, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b c d e f Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
9. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
10. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
11. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
12. ^ a b Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press