Squalor comes from the Latin squalere, which means “to be filthy.” This word often refers to living conditions as in, “after the disaster, the people were living in squalor.” This word can also describe a city or a building that is in general disrepair such as “ever since the budget cuts, the city has fallen into squalor.” If you know someone whose head is always in the gutter, you might say they suffer from a “squalor of the mind.”