Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Consisting of or relating to excrement.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Pertaining to, composed of, or in any way resembling dung, ordure, or feces; excrementitious; fecal.
  • In entomology, frequenting or feeding on dung, as many beetles, flies, etc.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective Of or pertaining to dung; partaking of the nature of, or containing, dung.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective Consisting of, resembling or pertaining to feces.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Latin stercus, stercor-, dung; see sker- in Indo-European roots + –aceous.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Latin stercus ("dung").

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Examples

Comments

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  • What a useful word!

    October 14, 2007

  • ...he had reason to believe the stercoraceous flavour, condemned by prejudice as a stink, was, in fact, most agreeable to the organs of smelling; for, that every person who pretended to nauseate the smell of another's excretions, snuffed up his own with particular complacency; for the truth of which he appealed to all the ladies and gentlemen then present: he said, the inhabitants of Madrid and Edinburgh found particular satisfaction in breathing their own atmosphere, which was always impregnated with stercoraceous effluvia: that the learned Dr B--, in his treatise on the Four Digestions, explains in what manner the volatile effluvia from the intestines stimulate and promote the operations of the animal economy: he affirmed, the last Grand Duke of Tuscany, of the Medicis family, who refined upon sensuality with the spirit of a philosopher, was so delighted with that odour, that he caused the essence of ordure to be extracted, and used it as the most delicious perfume: that he himself (the doctor) when he happened to be low-spirited, or fatigued with business, found immediate relief and uncommon satisfaction from hanging over the stale contents of a close-stool, while his servant stirred it about under his nose; nor was this effect to be wondered at, when we consider that this substance abounds with the self-same volatile salts that are so greedily smelled to by the most delicate invalids, after they have been extracted and sublimed by the chemists.

    - Smollett, The Expedition of Humphry Clinker (Melford to Phillips), 1771

    January 3, 2009

  • Yikes!

    January 3, 2009