souiller

to soil, sully, dirty; to make unclean or impure; defile, profane; to blacken, besmirch, defile

Inherited from Middle French souiller, from Old French soillier, souillier (“to soil, make dirty, wallow in mire”), from Frankish *sulwijan (“to make dirty, soil”), from Proto-Germanic *sulwijaną, *saulijaną (“to soil, make dirty”), from Proto-Indo-European *sūl- (“thick liquid, mud”). Cognate with Old Saxon sulian (“to soil, mire”), Middle Dutch soluwen, seulewen (“to soil, besmirch”), Old High German solagōn, bisullen (“to make dirty”), German suhlen (“to soil, make dirty”), Old English solian