745: Litterbug Dec 22, 2016

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People litter, certainly, and cats have litters (of kittens), but bugs don't really have any relation; even a now-archaic form of the word meant to make a bed of litter for usually a horse, so why do people say, 'litterbug', in a teasing or pejorative manner? While both of the tmeses, or the individual elements of a compound, are quite old 'litterbug' has only been around for a few decades. Much like the term, 'jaywalking' (see here), 'litterbug' was a word coined by corporations trying to put the blame on the public for problems that were not really the fault (entirely) of the people and avoid responsibility for, in this case, pollution.

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