stench

From Middle English stench, from Old English stenċ (“stench, odor, fragrance”), from Proto-Germanic *stankwiz (“smell, fragrance, odor”), from Proto-Indo-European *stengʷ- (“to push, thrust”). Cognate with Dutch stank (“stench, odor”), German Stank, Gestank (“stench, odor, smell”), Danish stank (“stench”), Swedish stank (“stench”), Icelandic stækja (“stench”).

• IPA^(key): /stɛnt͡ʃ/

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• Rhymes: -ɛntʃ

stench (plural stenches)

1. a strong foul smell; a stink.
2. (figurative) A foul quality.

   the stench of political corruption

3. (obsolete) A smell or odour, not necessarily bad.
   • a. 1701 (date written), John Dryden, “The First Book of Homer’s Ilias”, in The Miscellaneous Works of John Dryden, […], volume IV, London: […] J[acob] and R[ichard] Tonson, […], published 1760, →OCLC, page 432:

     Black bulls, and bearded goats on altars lie; / And clouds of ſav'ry ſtench involve the ſky.

• (disagreeable smell): stink, pong (Commonwealth)

• (antonym(s) of “disagreeable smell”): aroma, fragrance, perfume

stench (third-person singular simple present stenches, present participle stenching, simple past and past participle stenched)

1. (obsolete) To cause to emit a disagreeable odour; to cause to stink.
   • 1729, Edward Young, Imperium Pelagi:

     Dead bards stench every coast

2. To stanch.

• stenche, stinche, stynche
• stænc, stinnch (Early Middle English); stunch (Southern or Southwest Midland)

Originally two distinct nouns:

• Old English stenċ, from Proto-West Germanic *stankwi, from Proto-Germanic *stankwiz.
• Old English stynċ, from Proto-West Germanic *stunkwi, from Proto-Germanic *stunkwiz.

• IPA^(key): /stɛnt͡ʃ/, /stint͡ʃ/
• IPA^(key): /stynt͡ʃ/ (Southern or Southwest Midland)

stench (plural stenches)

1. A stench; an unpleasant or repulsive smell:
   1. The sulphuric smell of hellfire.
   2. The smell of sin or iniquity.
2. Something that causes or has such a smell.
3. (rare, Early Middle English) A smell or scent (good or bad).

• stenchen

• English: stench
• Scots: stench, stinch

• “stench, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 24 October 2018.
• Zettersten, Arne (1965), “stench (sb.)”, in Studies in the dialect and vocabulary of the Ancrene Riwle (Lund Studies in English; 34)‎^[1], Lund: C. W. K. Gleerup, →OCLC, page 81.