pollutio

Forms

pollūtiō f (genitive pollūtiōnis); third declension^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin polluō (“to soil, defile”) + -tiō, a noun of action.^[1][2][3]

De Vaan explains the verb polluō as a compound of por- and a verb that goes back to Proto-Italic *lowe/o- or *lawe/o-, from Proto-Indo-European *leu-e/o- or *lHu-e/o- (“to soil”).^[4] Apart from this verb, the Indo-European languages have only nouns from the root; he refers to lutum “mud”.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLL finds it mostly in Bible translations and Christian writers, otherwise in Palladius on farming and in Servius.^[2] In the Vulgate it is the stain of sin: sine pollutione peccati “without the defilement of sin” (Judith 13:20).^[5][6][7]

Semantic evolution

Palladius uses it of physical soiling.^[3][6] Christian writers used it especially of sexual defilement: an Old Latin version of 2 Peter speaks of those who walk “in the lust of defilement”, and Cassian of monks free from every defilement of intercourse.^[2]

In medieval Latin it could mean plain dirt, the desecration of a church or sanctuary, and the involuntary emission of semen, above all at night, in penitentials and medical texts.^[8][9] In Poland it also meant rape and disgrace.^[9] English took it over in the mid-14th century, first for the emission of semen and later for desecration and ritual uncleanness.^[10]

Timeline

• 390–406 AD – The Vulgate speaks of the stain of sin.^[5][11]
• end of 4th or beginning of 5th century AD – Palladius uses it of soiling.^[3][11]
• 1223 – A letter speaks of the pollution of a sanctuary.^[8]
• mid-14th century – English borrows it as pollution.^[10]
• 1347 – A Polish law text uses it for the violation of women.^[9]

Meanings

Noun

1. Soiling, contamination; dirt.^[3][6][8]
2. (Ecclesiastical Latin) Moral or ritual defilement, impurity, especially that of sin.^[5][2][12]
3. (Ecclesiastical Latin) Sexual defilement, unchastity.^[2][11]
4. (Medieval Latin) The desecration of a church or holy place.^[8]
5. (Medieval Latin) An involuntary emission of semen, especially at night.^[8][9]
6. (Medieval Latin) Rape, violation; disgrace.^[9]

Related words

• polluō
• English pollution

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
3. ^ a b c d Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
4. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
5. ^ a b c Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
7. ^ Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
8. ^ a b c d e Latham, R. E., D. R. Howlett, R. K. Ashdowne, et al. (1975–2013), Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources, London: British Academy / Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b c d e Lexicon mediae et infimae Latinitatis Polonorum (1953–), Kraków: Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN; electronic ed. elexicon.scriptores.pl
10. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
11. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
12. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson