Dirty

Part of speech: adjective

Pronunciation: /ˈdɜːti/

Definitions

1. Covered with or containing unwanted substances such as mud, dust, or stains
2. Characterized by the presence of unwanted substances like dust or grease, this describes a state of uncleanliness that can be physical or metaphorical
3. Marked by grime, soil, or filth that makes something unclean or sullied

Etymology: The adjective "dirty" is a fairly plain formation: it is simply "dirt" with the suffix "-y", meaning "full of or characterised by". The more surprising part is the first syllable's history. The noun "dirt" itself began as "drit" or "dritte" in Middle English, a word for excrement, and the adjective grew out of that earlier form, "dritti", before it was reshaped into "dirti" in the later Middle English period. So the core sense was originally quite literal and rather unpleasant. The adjective is related to Middle Low German "drēterich", which carried the same sense of being foul or soiled, pointing to a shared Germanic inheritance rather than a borrowing. Its older cousin "drite", which also meant excrement, shows how closely the family of words once clustered around bodily waste.

Synonyms: unclean, soiled, filthy, grimy, messy

Antonyms: clean, pure, spotless