Etymologically
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trash

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 16 October 2026 at 02:09. This address is a permanent link to this version.
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Pronunciation

  • IPA: /træʃ/[1]

Etymology

It is perhaps borrowed from Old Norse tros (“rubbish, fallen leaves and twigs”) or a related Scandinavian word; compare Norwegian dialect trask “lumber, trash” and Swedish trasa “rag”,[2][3][4] but it is ultimately of obscure or unknown origin.[2][5][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Fallen leaves and twigs used as kindling, and things of little value: about 1400 in Etymonline.[2] Worthless stuff, rubbish: about 1518, in Skelton's Magnificence, in Barnhart, the OED and MWU.[3][7][4]

Semantic evolution

Worthless writing or ideas is by the 1540s.[2][7] Applied to worthless people it is first in Shakespeare's Othello (1604),[3][2][8] and especially to poor whites in the American South by 1831.[2] The refuse of sugar cane is from 1707.[7] Household garbage is from 1906, in American English,[2][7] and trash can from 1914.[2] The verb, to discard as worthless, is from 1859 in Barnhart and by 1909 in Etymonline;[3][2] to vandalize is from 1970, and to criticize harshly from 1975.[3][2] Trash-talk is by 1989.[2]

Timeline

  • c. 1400 – twigs; worthless things.[2]
  • c. 1518 – rubbish.[3]
  • 1604 – worthless people.[3]
  • 1906 – household garbage.[2][7]
  • 1970 – to vandalize.[3][2]
  • 1975 – to criticize harshly.[3]

Modern meaning

Noun

  1. (chiefly US) Waste material; rubbish or garbage.
  2. Foolish talk or ideas; nonsense.
  3. Writing, art or entertainment of poor quality.
  4. (offensive) A person or people regarded as worthless.
  5. Trimmings from plants, or the remains of sugar cane after crushing.

Verb

  1. (informal) To throw something away.
  2. (informal) To wreck or vandalize.
  3. (informal) To criticize harshly.

Word family

  • trasher
  • trash-talking
  • trashed
  • trashman
  • trashy
  • poor white trash
  • trash talk
  • trash can

References

  1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  4. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  5. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  7. ^ a b c d e Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  8. ^ Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press