fetid

• foetid
• fœtid (archaic)

Borrowed from Latin fētidus (“having offensive odour”), originally fēteō (“to stink”).

• IPA^(key): /ˈfɛtɪd/

  • Audio (Southern England):

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• Rhymes: -ɛtɪd

fetid (comparative more fetid, superlative most fetid)

1. Foul-smelling, stinking.

   I caught the fetid odor of dirty socks.

   • 1878, Henry James, “Honoré de Balzac”, in French Poets and Novelists‎^[1], London: Macmillan, II, p. 122:

     […] this room, where misfortune seems to ooze, where speculation lurks in corners, and of which Madame Vauquer inhales the warm, fetid air without being nauseated.

   • 1992, Neal Stephenson, Snow Crash, page 285:

     Hiro fakes toward the whorehouse, then cuts directly toward an exposed section of wall. The fabric of the building is tough, but his katana slices a six-foot rent through it with a single gliding motion, and then he's outside, spat out of the hole on a jet of fetid air.

• See also Thesaurus:malodorous

• asafoetida

fetid (plural fetids)

1. (rare) The foul-smelling asafoetida plant, or its extracts.

Borrowed from French fétide, from Latin foetidus.

fetid m or n (feminine singular fetidă, masculine plural fetizi, feminine and neuter plural fetide)

1. fetid

• fetiditate