Etymograph

English

malodor

Malodor comes from Latin male ‘badly’, from malus ‘unpleasant, distressing, painful, nasty, bad’, and ultimately from Proto-Italic *malos.

  1. Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*malosreconstructed
  2. Archaic Latinc. 700–75 BCEmalos
  3. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEmalus‘unpleasant, distressing, painful, nasty, bad’
  4. Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEmale‘badly’
  5. Englishtodaymalodor

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed

Earlier history uncertain.

Lineage

  1. Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*malosreconstructed
  2. Archaic Latinc. 700–75 BCEmalos
  3. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEmalus‘unpleasant, distressing, painful, nasty, bad’
  4. Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEmale‘badly’
  5. Englishtodaymalodor

A compound of mal- ‘bad’ + odor

Proto-Italic *malos

Archaic Latin malos

Latin malus ‘bad’

Latin male ‘badly’

English mal-

Proto-Indo-European *h₃ed- ‘to smell’

…

Latin odor ‘a smell, perfume, stench’

Old French odor

Anglo-Norman odour

Middle English odour ‘a pleasant or appealing smell or scent’

English odor

Linked words

through Proto-Indo-European *(s)mel- ‘false, erroneous’

blasphemy, 8 more

through Archaic Latin malos

malice, 6 more

through Latin malus ‘unpleasant, distressing, painful, nasty, bad’

malicious, mali, pessimist, malus, 10 more

through Latin male ‘badly’

maleficent, 5 more

Today it means

noun An offensive odor.

Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.

Etymograph / Proto-Italic *malos / malodor

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