fetore

Forms

fetore m (plural fetori)^[1] Old forms include Old Italian fetor, Old Italian fectore and the southern plural Old Italian fituri.^[2]

Etymology

It is learned: it is borrowed from Latin foetor (“stench”), a noun formed from foeteō (“to stink”).^{[3][4][5][6][1]} The Latin noun is also written fētor and faetor.^[7][1] Italian took the same verb's participle as fetente and its adjective as fetido.^[3][4] The inherited form survives in Spanish hedor and Portuguese fedor.^[8][9][6]

The origin of the Latin verb is not settled.^[3][4] Nocentini compares it within Latin with fimus (“dung”) and foedus (“foul”).^[4] De Vaan derives it from a Proto-Italic stem meaning “smoking, smelly” and further from Proto-Indo-European *dʰwoh₂-i- (“to smoke”).^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is in anonymous 13th-century poems from Urbino, in the sense of a repulsive smell;^[2][3] DELI dates the word to Iacopone da Todi, before 1306.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

In Old Italian the stench was often a sign of sin: the TLIO groups uses where it is both a bodily symptom and a symbol of carnal sins, and metaphors of moral corruption.^[2] Domenico Cavalca compared a slanderer to an open grave that gives off fetore e puzza.^[11] Fra Giordano counted among Christ's sufferings il fetore de' corpi giustiziati, the stench of the executed bodies at Calvary.^[11]

The modern meaning is unchanged: a strong, nauseating stink.^[5][12]

Timeline

• 13th century – The word appears in anonymous poems from Urbino.^[2]
• Before 1306 – Iacopone da Todi uses fetore “strong, nauseating stink”.^[3][5]

Meanings

Noun

1. A strong, disgusting smell: stench, stink: il fetore della discarica arrivava fino al paese.^{[5][12][13][1]}

Related words

• fetente
• fetido
• fetere
• puzzo
• lezzo
• Latin foetor

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
3. ^ a b c d e f Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
4. ^ a b c d Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
5. ^ a b c d De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
6. ^ a b Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 1628
7. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
9. ^ Körting, Gustav (1907), Lateinisch-romanisches Wörterbuch: etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Hauptsprachen, 3rd ed., Paderborn: Schöningh
10. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
11. ^ a b Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
12. ^ a b Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
13. ^ Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse