the.com/cleanliness
The belief that dirt is a moral failing, invented by people who never touched dirt professionally.
means The state of being clean, and the cultural habit of treating that state as a virtue worth pursuing.
from Built from 'clean' — from Old English 'clæne,' meaning pure or unstained — plus the noun-forming suffix '-liness.' The phrase 'cleanliness is next to godliness' isn't scripture, despite how often it's quoted as such; it traces to 18th-century sermonizing (John Wesley used it), which is precisely where the word picked up its moralizing shadow. The dirt itself never asked to be a sin.
- origin myth
- Godliness quote is Wesley, not the Bible
- hospital rule
- Handwashing was ridiculed before germ theory existed
- immune cost
- Over sterilized homes correlate with more allergies
- cultural lie
- Most hotel bedspreads are rarely washed between guests