rancid

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin rancidus (“rotten, putrid; rank, stinking, offensive”),^{[2][3][4][5][6]} from ranceō (“to be rotten or putrid, to stink”),^[2][5][7][6] which is known only from its present participle,^[3][8] with the suffix -idus.^[2][8] The verb is of uncertain or unknown origin.^[2][4][6][3] The OED compares Middle French rancide, recorded once in 1570, Spanish ráncido of the late 16th century and Italian rancido of 1340,^[2] and, with the regular loss of the -d-, French rance, Catalan ranci and Spanish rancio.^[2][4] Etymonline adds that German ranzig is from the French word.^[4] The Latin verb is also the source of rancor.^[4][9][10]

Earliest recorded meaning

Of fat or oil, or food containing them: having an unpleasant taste or smell from decomposition; rank, stale or sour: 1627, in George Hakewill's Apologie of the Power and Providence of God.^[2][7]

Semantic evolution

The 1989 edition of the OED, Barnhart and Merriam-Webster's Collegiate dated the word to 1646,^[11][3][12] and Etymonline to the 1640s;^[4] the revised OED and Merriam-Webster Unabridged have the 1627 record.^[2][7] The figurative sense, "disagreeable, odious, nasty", is recorded from before 1646, in Walter Raleigh's Reliquiæ Raleighanæ,^[2] although the 1989 edition of the OED had dated it only to 1833.^[11] Johnson (1755) defined the word as "strong scented", quoting Arbuthnot on fish oil that "often turns rancid".^[13] In slang it has meant "infatuated" (British, 1905) and, among American teenagers, "ugly, unattractive" (1989).^[14]

Timeline

• 1627 – of fats, oils and foods, rank or stale from decomposition.^[2][7]
• before 1646 – figurative, disagreeable, odious, nasty.^[2]
• 1905 – British slang, infatuated.^[14]
• 1989 – American teenage slang, ugly, unattractive.^[14]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Of butter, bacon, oil and the like: smelling or tasting unpleasant because of decomposition or chemical change: The cupboard smelled of rancid cooking fat.^{[15][7][16][2]}
2. Of a taste or smell: rank, sour or stale.^[15][2]
3. Figuratively, nasty or odious; offensive.^[7][16][2]

Word family

• rancidity
• rancidness
• rancidly
• unrancid

Related words

• rancor

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
6. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
7. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
8. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ a b Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
12. ^ Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
13. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
14. ^ a b c Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
15. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
16. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin