What is the origin of the term “whitewash”?
whitewash comes from as early as 1591, “to wash a building surface with white liquid,” from white + wash. In the sense of “to cover up, conceal” from 1762. First used in a political way in the 1800s when the newspaper, Philadelphia Aurora editorial said “If you do not whitewash President Adams speedily, the Democrats, like swarms of flies, will bespatter him all over, and make you both as speckled as a dirty wall, and as black as the devil.
