From Middle English pollucion, from Anglo-Norman pollutiun, Middle French pollution, pollucion, and their source, post-classical Latin pollūtiō (4th century), from the participial stem of polluō ("to soil, defile, contaminate"), from por- ("before") + -luō, related to lutum ("mud") and luēs ("filth").

• (British) IPA: /pəˈl(j)uːʃən/
• (America) IPA: /pəˈluʃən/

pollution

1. Physical contamination, now especially the contamination of the environment by harmful substances, or by disruptive levels of noise, light etc. [from 18th c.]

   Pollution levels are almost always higher in cities rather than the countryside, what with the cars, industry and so on.

2. Something that pollutes; a pollutant. [from 17th c.]
3. (now, rare) The desecration of something holy or sacred; defilement, profanation. [from 14th c.]
   • 1667, John Milton, “Book XII”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC ↗; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC ↗:

     Men who attend the Altar, and should most / Endevor Peace: thir strife pollution brings / Upon the Temple it self […].

   • 1869, Mark Twain [pseudonym; Samuel Langhorne Clemens], The Innocents Abroad, or The New Pilgrims' Progress; […], Hartford, Conn.: American Publishing Company. […], →OCLC ↗:

     [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. (now, archaic) The ejaculation of semen outside of sexual intercourse, especially a nocturnal emission. [from 14th c.]
5. Moral or spiritual corruption; impurity, degradation, defilement. [from 15th c.]
   • 1813 January 26, [Jane Austen], Pride and Prejudice: […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), London: […] [George Sidney] for T[homas] Egerton, […], →OCLC ↗:

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

• soilage

• conservation
• purity

• polluter

• French: pollution
• Italian: polluzione
• Portuguese: polução
• Russian: поллю́ция

• French: défilement
• Portuguese: poluição

• French: pollution
• German: Verunreinigung, Verschmutzung, Umweltverschmutzung, Pollution
• Italian: inquinamento
• Portuguese: poluição
• Russian: загрязне́ние
• Spanish: polución, contaminación

• Italian: inquinante
• Portuguese: poluente