The toxic materials and other wastes that drip or are expelled from motor vehicles. Stephen Goldsmith coined the term in 2001. He was planning director for Salt Lake City, Utah, working with the mayor to stop a proposed inter-city highway that would bring tens of thousands more cars into the city. ‘The impacts to water and air quality would require the city to process the autoguano, some of which (like rubber dust) is not manageable,’ Goldsmith recalls. ‘The word creates an immediate image for people who otherwise don’t see the beast for what it is. “Autoguano” is particularly illustrative when I speak to people about all the stuff the car brings into their attached garages, as though it were a filthy pet invited into the house. Since most attached garages in the US connect directly to the kitchen, an awareness of the health risks is easy for people to digest when the word is introduced.’
autoguano
autoguano
A note on the entries
Words printed in small capitals refer the reader to other entries, where further information on the topic or a related topic will be found. Dates in brackets immediately after a name – such as Patrick Geddes (1905) or (Geddes, 1905) – refer to a work listed at the back of the dictionary. Bracketed dates that do not follow a name serve to date a publication but do not reference it. Semi-colons are used in listing different ways of describing meanings that are the same or similar. Bold numerals indicate different meanings of the same term. The bracketed letters (NAm), (US) or (UK) indicate that the terms are used in North America, the USA or the United Kingdom. Acronyms have entries only when they make words.