Word of the DayThursday, May 27, 2004
fetor
\FEE-tuhr; FEE-tor\ , noun:1.
A strong, offensive smell; stench.
Quotes:
Inside it's pitch black & the air is hot & wet with the sweet fetor of rotting grass.
-- Peter Blegvad, "The Free Lunch", Chicago Review, June 22, 1999
When I close my eyes and summon the fond smells of childhood . . . the aroma that fills, as it were, the nostrils of my memory is the sulfurous, protein-dissolving fetor of Nair.
-- Jeffrey Eugenides, Middlesex
Origin:
Fetor comes from Latin foetor, from foetere, "to stink."
