filthy | Search Online Etymology Dictionary

26 entries found.

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.

squalid (adj.)

1590s, from French squalide and directly from Latin squalidus "rough, coated with dirt, filthy," related to squales "filth," squalus "filthy," squalare "be covered with a rough, stiff layer, be coated with dirt, be filthy," of uncertain origin. Related: Squalidly; squalidness; squalidity.

dirty (v.)

"to defile; make filthy," 1590s, from dirty (adj.). Related: Dirtied; dirtying.

hoggish (adj.)

"having the characteristics of a hog," especially "gluttonous, greedy," late 15c., from hog (n.) + -ish. Meaning "slovenly, filthy" is from 1540s. Related: Hoggishly; hoggishness.

squalor (n.)

1620s, "state or condition of being miserable and dirty," from Latin squalor "roughness, dirtiness, filthiness," from squalere "be filthy" (see squalid).

Augean (adj.)

"very filthy," 1590s, in reference to Augean stable, the cleansing of which was one of the labors of Herakles, from Greek Augeias, from Augeas, king of Elis, whose proverbially filthy stable contained 3,000 oxen and had gone uncleansed for 30 years. Herakles purified it in one day by turning the river Alpheus through it. The name probably is from auge "splendor, sunlight."

lazar (n.)

"filthy beggar, leper," c. 1300, from Medieval Latin lazarus "leper," from Lazarus (q.v.), the name of the beggar in the biblical parable. Sometimes also lazard, with pejorative suffix.

scummy (adj.)

"covered with scum," 1570s, from scum + -y (2). Transferred sense of "filthy, disreputable" is recorded from 1932. Related: Scumminess.

ordure (n.)

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.

foulness (n.)

Old English fulness "foulness, filthy smell;" see foul (adj.) + -ness. Similar formation in Old Frisian fulnisse, Dutch vuilnis, German fäulniss.

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