contamination
n.-
1 pollution or dirt (n.) B2 Upper Intermediate Sciencethe state of being dirty or dangerous because of chemicals, bacteria, or other harmful things.
the presence of an unwanted constituent or impurity in a material, physical body, or natural environment.
ExampleThe city warned residents about the contamination of the local water supply after the flood.
ExampleEnvironmental scientists detected significant chemical contamination in the soil samples collected near the decommissioned industrial site.
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2 linguistic blending (n.) C1 Advanced Technical Linguisticswhen two words with similar meanings influence each other and change their sounds or forms.
the process by which the form of one word is altered through the influence of another related word.
ExampleThe word 'female' changed its spelling because of contamination from the word 'male'.
ExampleHistorical linguists often cite contamination as the primary driver for irregular morphological changes in closely related lexical sets.
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3 mixing of texts (n.) C2 Proficiency Academic Formalwhen a person copying an old book mixes parts from different versions together.
the intermingling of readings from multiple manuscript sources by a copyist, resulting in a hybrid text.
ExampleThe ancient poem exists in several versions due to the contamination of different manuscripts.
ExampleThe editor faced the difficult task of identifying textual contamination where the scribe had clearly consulted two distinct traditions simultaneously.
From Latin contāminātiōnem.