Meaning

noun undesirable state of the natural environment being contaminated with harmful substances as a consequence of human activities

noun the state of being polluted

noun the act of contaminating or polluting; including (either intentionally or accidentally) unwanted substances or factors

originFrom Middle English pollucioun, pollucion (“desecration, impurity”), from Anglo-Norman pollutiun, Middle French pollution, pollucion, and their source, post-classical Latin pollūtiō (“defilement, desecration; nocturnal emission”) (4th century), from the participial stem of polluō (“to soil, defile, contaminate”), from por- (“before”) + -luō (“to smear”), related to lutum (“mud”) and luēs…

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 3.0