Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. An offensive odor; a stench. See Synonyms at stench.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. Any strong offensive smell; stench.
Wiktionary
- n. An unpleasant smell.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. A strong, offensive smell; stench; fetidness.
WordNet 3.0
- n. a distinctive odor that is offensively unpleasant
Etymologies
- Middle English fetoure, from Latin fētor, from fētēre, to stink.
Examples
“ Harry and Giselle sank into the cat hair and fetor of his double bed.”
“It appeared to be opaque glass, but it exuded the pungent fetor of magick.”
“It is a fetor that frequently accompanies the predictable libidinous lapses of pious \ "family values\" conservatives.”
“It is a fetor that frequently accompanies the predictable libidinous lapses of pious "family values" conservatives.”
“This is the raw, cutting odor of the jungle, the gash of the tropics, the fetor of equatorial darkness, the essence of everything Western civilization glosses over, dyes and tries to not think about.”
“The lather and fetor of horse sweat, the whitened eyes.”
“I say the fetor anti-judaicus is just as perceptible on them.”
“There is more of life and humanity in the driver of a battered Ford who picks up a hitchhiker in the darkling valleys of Tennessee than in the moral fetor and vanity of Washington.”
“He was excited; I could feel his heart pounding, too, and smell the reek of fresh sweat over the fetor of stale clothes and body.”
A Breath of Snow and Ashes
“After fording the rapid Luia, we left our former path on the banks of the Zambesi, and struck off in a N.W. direction behind one of the hill ranges, the eastern end of which is called Mongwa, the name of an acacia, having a peculiarly strong fetor, found on it.”
A Popular Account of Dr. Livingstone's Expedition to the Zambesi and Its Tributaries
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘fetor’.
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UK Usage - Find US Equivalent
All these terms have a (different) American English equivalent. Wonder if you can identify them?
abridgement (abri..., accoutrement, accoutre, acknowledgement (..., opposite, advert, adaptor, adapter, sticking plaster, advertise, adviser (advisor ..., adze, aesthete and 1196 more...
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Stink Different™
What-the-smell is that?
hircine, jumentous, hyena butter, cadaverine, new car smell, teen spirit, parosmia, hircismus, ylang-ylang, burnt hair, hydrogen sulfide, gay bomb and 111 more...
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Logolepsy
"Luciferous Logolepsy is a collection of over 9,000 obscure English words. Though the definition of an 'English' word might seem to be straightforward, it is not. There exist so many adopted, deriv...
Anschauung, Areopagus, Argus, Briarean, Dei gratia, Dei judicium, Deo volente, Duecento, Foehn, Geflugelte Worte, Gegenschein, Hakenkreuz and 9230 more...
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harmonygritz's Cross Words
Words discovered while doing puzzles. Includes puns, e.g. taper vs. tapir.
hodad, hart, avocet, cahier, blackbird, brace, fetor, Bren, Rialto, bijou, liveried, stentor and 60 more...
milosrdenstvi See also foetor. Jan 20, 2010
chained_bear "I had picked out a distinct stench of sickness amid the general fetor. Not only the ghost of long-dried vomit, but the sweet smell of purulent discharge and that indefinable musty, yeast-rising odor that seems to be simply the smell of illness itself."
—Diana Gabaldon, The Fiery Cross (NY: Bantam Dell, 2001), 419 Jan 20, 2010
chained_bear "...went down into the unbreathable fetor, watched nervously by the slaver's hands, who held their whips in an uncertain, awkward fashion..."
--P. O'Brian, The Commodore, 190 Mar 17, 2008