Garbage did not always mean general household trash. In earlier English, it referred specifically to the entrails and other discarded parts of an animal after butchering.
In other words, the word began as a term for animal waste from preparing meat, not for every kind of refuse. A simple example is the guts and offal left behind when an animal was dressed for food.
Over time, the meaning broadened. Like many words, it moved from a narrow, specific sense to a wider everyday one. Eventually, garbage came to mean ordinary waste in general, especially kitchen and household refuse.
- Earlier sense: animal entrails and butcher waste
- Later sense: general household trash
- Example contrast: butchered animal remains versus the trash in a kitchen bin
This kind of change is common in language history. A word may start with one exact meaning, then expand as people apply it to similar kinds of unwanted material.