A foul or extremely bad smell; a strong, offensive odor.
From Latin 'fetor' (a strong, foul smell), directly borrowed into English. The word has been used since Middle English to describe particularly putrid odors, often associated with decay or decomposition.
This word is the Latin word for 'stink' that English simply adopted wholesale—it's so specifically repulsive-sounding that it's used in medical contexts for genuinely dangerous smells, like 'fetor hepaticus' (breath smelling of liver disease).
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