different between litter vs detritus

English

Etymology

From French litière, from lit (“bed”), from Latin lectus; confer Ancient Greek ??????? (léktron). Had the sense ‘bed’ in very early English, but then came to mean ‘portable couch’, ‘bedding’, ‘strewn rushes (for animals)’, etc.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /?l?t?(?)/
• (US) IPA^(key): /?l?t?/, [?l???]
• Rhymes: -?t?(r)
• Homophone: lidder (US)

Noun

litter (countable and uncountable, plural litters)

1. (countable) A platform mounted on two shafts, or a more elaborate construction, designed to be carried by two (or more) people to transport one (in luxury models sometimes more) third person(s) or (occasionally in the elaborate version) a cargo, such as a religious idol.
2. (collective, countable) The offspring of a mammal born in one birth.
3. (uncountable) Material used as bedding for animals.

4. (uncountable) Collectively, items discarded on the ground.
   • 1730, Jonathan Swift, s:The Lady's Dressing Room

     Strephon [...] / Stole in, and took a strict survey / Of all the litter as it lay.
5. (uncountable) Absorbent material used in an animal's litter tray

6. (uncountable) Layer of fallen leaves and similar organic matter in a forest floor.
7. A covering of straw for plants.

Synonyms

• (platform designed to carry a person or a load): palanquin, sedan chair, stretcher, cacolet
• (items discarded on the ground): waste, rubbish, garbage (US), trash (US), junk

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

litter (third-person singular simple present litters, present participle littering, simple past and past participle littered)

1. (intransitive) To drop or throw trash without properly disposing of it (as discarding in public areas rather than trash receptacles).

2. (transitive) To scatter carelessly about.
3. (transitive) To strew (a place) with scattered articles.
4. (transitive) To give birth to, used of animals.
5. (intransitive) To produce a litter of young.
6. (transitive) To supply (cattle etc.) with litter; to cover with litter, as the floor of a stall.
   • 1693, John Hacket, Scrinia reserata: a Memorial offered to the great Deservings of John Williams

     Tell them how they litter their jades.

   • For his ease, well litter'd was the floor.

7. (intransitive) To be supplied with litter as bedding; to sleep or make one's bed in litter.
   • 1634, William Habington, Castara

     The inn where he and his horse litter'd.

Derived terms

• litterer

Translations

Anagrams

• retilt, tilter, titler

Norman

Etymology

From Old French luitier, loitier, luiter (compare French lutter), from Vulgar Latin luct?re, from Latin luctor, luct?r? (“struggle, wrestle, fight”).

Verb

litter

1. (Jersey) to wrestle

Derived terms

• litteux (“wrestler”)

English

Etymology

From Latin d?tr?tus (“the act of rubbing away”), from d?ter? (“rub away”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /d??t?a?t?s/
• Rhymes: -a?t?s

Noun

detritus (usually uncountable, plural detritus or detrita)

1. (countable, chiefly geology) Pieces of rock broken off by ice, glacier, or erosion.
2. (biology, ecology) Organic waste material from decomposing dead plants or animals.
   • 2009, Christian Wirth, Gerd Gleixner, Martin Heimann, Old-Growth Forests: Function, Fate and Value, Springer Science & Business Media (?ISBN), page 159:

     Woody detritus is an important component of forested ecosystems. It can reduce erosion and affects soil development, stores nutrients and water, provides a major source of energy and nutrients, and serves as a seedbed for plants and as a major habitat for decomposers and hetereotrophs.

3. (by extension) Any debris or fragments of disintegrated material.

Derived terms

• detrital / detritic
• detritivore
• zoodetritus

Translations

Further reading

• detritus on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Latin

Etymology

From d?ter? (“rub away”), from d? (“away”) + ter? (“rub”).

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /de??tri?.tus/, [d?e??t??i?t??s?]
• (Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /de?tri.tus/, [d???t??i?t?us]

Participle

d?tr?tus (feminine d?tr?ta, neuter d?tr?tum); first/second-declension participle

1. rubbed away, worn away, worn out, having been rubbed away
2. (figuratively) diminished in force, lessened, weakened, impaired, having been weakened
3. (figuratively) worn out, trite, hackneyed, having been worn out

Declension

First/second-declension adjective.

Noun

d?tr?tus m (genitive d?tr?t?s); fourth declension

1. The act of rubbing away

Declension

Fourth-declension noun.

Related terms

• d?ter?
• d?tr?ment?sus
• d?tr?mentum

Descendants

References

• detritus in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• detritus in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• detritus in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré Latin-Français, Hachette

Romanian

Etymology

From French détritus, from Latin detritus.

Noun

detritus n (uncountable)

1. detritus

Declension

Spanish

Noun

detritus m (plural detritus)

1. detritus