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  • Hi this is Tutor Nick P and this is Word Origins eight. The word origin

  • today is a litter bug. All right. Let's take a look at the note here. A litter

  • bug is someone who drops litter in public places like in the street. Like if

  • you've ever seen somebody just walking in the street and they drop a piece of

  • paper on the ground and they don't pick it. Or you know whether they do it

  • on purpose or not that's what we refer to. That sort of a person is a litter bug.

  • All right. Let's continue here. The term litter bug was coined, so this is the guy who

  • created it. It was coined by Paul Gionni, a copywriter in New York City who created

  • it for the American Ad Council in 1947. The Keep America Beautiful organization

  • joined the Ad Council in 1961 to get the people to understand every individual

  • must help protect the environment. Yeah. So I think they had an ad campaign you

  • know, every little bit helps. All right, and again let's just review here review

  • the words. I mean litter , just in case you're a little confused about it. Litter

  • these are things such as pieces of paper you know that people drop, cigarette

  • butts you know things like that. You know, little small bags that people might just

  • drop and let fall on the street. That's litter. A bug in a litter bug, bug is you

  • know person that might annoy someone. So you're a litter bug. So it also sounds

  • very negative. So it's a way to make people not want to be that. You know we

  • call somebody a litter bug. So litter, things such as pieces of paper that have

  • been dropped on the ground in public places. Then we see a little bug. All

  • right. Oh this is a good note here. Fines for being a litter bug today can vary

  • from as low as 50 US dollars to up to 250 dollars and no more than 10 days in

  • jail. Wow ! I hope they really don't arrest you and put you in jail for just

  • being a litter bug. But I wouldn't be surprised if you got like a fifty-dollar

  • fine or a hundred-dollar fine you know if you're caught. To be honest I think

  • most policemen might look the other way. But I don't know maybe

  • you know maybe, they need to have a quota at some point. Maybe they'll

  • start giving out tickets for this. All right. Here's just two examples of the

  • way we still do use it. We would say to somebody ' don't be a litter bug. " And I

  • remember this when I was a kid I remember they used to have a lot of

  • trash cans around you know New York City. And then they often had that with the ad

  • campaign. They often wrote on it. Don't be a litter bug. You know, like and and they

  • also had one it's called ' pitch in' like you should just throw it in for the

  • garbage in. So don't be a litter bug to encourage people not to litter. Okay and

  • here's the second one. He got a fine for being a litter bug. Yeah. It's just the

  • way we would say it. Anyway, I hope you got it. I hope it's clear. Thank you for your

  • time. Bye-bye.

Hi this is Tutor Nick P and this is Word Origins eight. The word origin

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