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.