Ordure

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /ˈɔːdj(ʊ)ə/

Definitions

1. Biological waste expelled from organisms during digestion
2. Waste matter expelled from the bowels of animals or humans
3. Solid bodily waste that is discharged as part of the digestive process

Etymology: The Latin "horridus" meant "bristling" or "dreadful," and it is the ancestor of "ordure" through a sound change that is easy to miss. Its Old French descendant "ord" came to mean "filthy," and French added the suffix "-ure," used to form nouns for the results of an action, to make "ordure," which meant dirt, refuse, or dung. The word thus names the product of something made filthy. "Horridus" came from "horrere," "to stand on end, to shiver, to dread," the same idea behind "horrid" and "horror" in English. A frightening thing makes the hair bristle, and in Old French that bristling dread narrowed to plain filth. English borrowed "ordure" from Anglo-Norman and Middle French in the Middle English period, and it arrived carrying both its physical sense of waste and the older French sense of moral filth.

Synonyms: excrement, waste, filth

Antonyms: cleanliness