soil [ME] You might think that soil meaning ‘earth’ and soil meaning ‘to make dirty’ are linked, but they are quite distinct words. When you use the noun to refer to ‘home soil’ or ‘foreign soil’ you are using the word in its original sense. It came from Old French and once referred to a land or country. It could also refer to the ground, and later to the layer of earth that plants grow in. The verb soil, ‘to make dirty’, comes from Old French soiller, which was based on Latin sucula ‘a little pig’. There is presumably the idea of making a place into a pigsty behind the use of the English word.