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filth (n.)Old English fylð "uncleanness, impurity, foulness," from Proto-Germanic *fulitho (source also of Old Saxon fulitha "foulness, filth," Dutch vuilte, Old High German fulida), noun derivative of *fulo- "foul" (see foul (adj.)). A classic case of i-mutation.
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filthy (adj.)
Related entries & more late 12c., fulthe, "corrupt, sinful," from filth + -y (2). Meaning "physically unclean, dirty, noisome" is from late 14c. Meaning "morally dirty, obscene" is from 1530s.
In early use often hardly more emphatic than the mod. dirty; it is now a violent expression of disgust, seldom employed in polite colloquial speech. [OED]
Related: Filthily; filthiness.
ordure (n.)
Related entries & more late 14c., "dung, excrement, feces; filth, dirt," from Old French ordure "filth, uncleanliness" (12c.), from ord, ort "filthy, dirty, foul," from Latin horridus "dreadful" (see horrid). Related: Ordurous.
scat (n.2)
Related entries & more "filth, dung," by 1950, from Greek stem skat- "dung" (see scatology).
gleet (n.)mid-14c., "slime, greasy filth," from Old French glete "clay, loam; slime, mud, filth" (12c., Modern French glette), from Latin glitem (nominative glis) "sticky, glutinous ground," back-formation from glittus "sticky."
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gore (n.1)"thick, clotted blood," Old English gor "dirt, dung, filth, shit," a Germanic word (cognates: Middle Dutch goor "filth, mud;" Old Norse gor "cud;" Old High German gor "animal dung"), of uncertain origin. Sense of "clotted blood" (especially shed in battle) developed by 1560s (gore-blood is from 1550s).
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Related entries & more "a thick substance concreting in liquors; the lees or scum concreted" [Johnson], 1530s, probably from Middle Dutch modder "filth, dregs," from PIE *meu- (see mud).
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