Etymologically
Log in

fetor

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 24 October 2026 at 06:00. This address is a permanent link to this version.
Changes in this edit History

Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ˈfeː.tɔr][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ˈfɛː.tor][1]

Forms

fētor m (genitive fētōris); third declension[1] The OLD, the TLL and Georges list the word under foetor, with the spellings faetor and fētor.[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is from Latin fēteō (“to stink”) + -or.[2][1] De Vaan, who writes the verb ⟨foeteō⟩, takes ⟨oe⟩ to be the older spelling and traces the verb to Proto-Italic *fwoit- or Proto-Italic *fwōje/ot- “smoking, smelly”, from Proto-Indo-European *dʰuoh₂-i- (“to smoke”).[5] He reports that Ernout and Meillet held ⟨faeteō⟩ to be the original form and also considered a link with foedus “repulsive”.[5]

Cognate, if de Vaan is right, with Old Irish dé (“smoke”) and Hittite tuhhuu̯ai- (“smoke”).[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Cicero uses it in the speech against Piso, of a man lying “in the stench and wine of his Greeks”.[6] It means a foul smell there, its usual sense.[2][6]

Semantic evolution

Pliny the Elder speaks of remedies for bad breath, fetores oris.[6] Figuratively it meant foulness or offensiveness: Suetonius quotes Augustus mocking the “stench” of far-fetched words, reconditorum verborum fetores.[6][4]

Later writers used it of a corpse[4] and of dung,[4] and the TLL calls it a frequent word in Church writers.[3] Isidore of Seville explains putor, a bad smell, by it.[3] Portuguese fedor continues it.[3] English borrowed it as fetor in the mid-15th century.[7]

Timeline

  • 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of the stench of a drinking party.[6][8]
  • 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder writes of fetores oris, bad breath.[6][8]
  • c. 75–c. 150 AD – Suetonius quotes Augustus using it figuratively of far-fetched words.[6][4][8]
  • c. 370 AD – Eutropius uses it of a corpse.[4][8]
  • c. 560–636 AD – Isidore of Seville explains putor by it.[3][8]
  • mid-15th century – English borrows it as fetor.[7]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A foul smell, stench.[2][6][9]
  2. (figurative) Foulness, offensiveness.[6][4]
  • foetidus
  • English fetor

References

  1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d e Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  4. ^ a b c d e f g Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
  5. ^ a b c de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  7. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  8. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  9. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson