Foulnesse

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. The state of being filthy, nasty or disgustingly dirty ; the quality of being morally vile, wicked or corrupt
2. Repellent dirtiness or squalor in something ; the depravity of a person or act that is thoroughly wicked
3. Grimy, loathsome filthiness of a thing ; the wickedness or moral corruption that makes a person or deed repugnant

Etymology: "Foul" is one of the oldest words in English. Its Old English ancestor, "fūl," meant rotten, putrid, or decaying, so the first thing a foul thing did was stink. Moral senses such as "wicked" and "corrupt" grew out of that physical sense of corruption, and the moral meaning is recorded early enough that it was never a late extension. The suffix "-ness," also Old English, turns the adjective into an abstract noun meaning "the state of being foul." The spelling with a final "e" is an older form from the Middle English and early modern periods, when English writers often added silent final letters without a consistent rule. It was a spelling habit rather than a different word, so the sense hasn't changed: the modern "foulness" carries both the physical squalor and the moral wickedness that the older form expressed.

Synonyms: filth, vileness, nastiness, squalor, grossness

Antonyms: cleanliness, purity, fairness