Word of the Day

Wednesday, July 16, 2008

mephitic

\muh-FIT-ik\ , adjective;

Offensive to the smell; as, mephitic odors.

Poisonous; noxious.

Quotes:

The mephitic stench from the bilge became overpowering.

-- Richard Holmes, Coleridge: Darker Reflections, 1804-1834

Over everything presides "a sort of mephitic fog," a pervasive sulfuric stink.

-- Dale Peck, "Way Outback", New York Times, March 22, 1998

. . .unpoisoned by the mephitic vapours which poisoned the atmosphere of his police-office.

-- Henry Fielding, Tom Jones

Origin:

Mephitic is the adjective form of mephitis, "a foul-smelling or noxious exhalation from the earth; a stench from any source," from the Latin.