Stinkingnes

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. The state or quality of giving off a strong, unpleasant smell that is offensive to the nose
2. The condition of being extremely foul-smelling, with an odor that is repellent to most people
3. The degree to which something emits a rank, offensive odor that is hard to ignore

Etymology: Before "stink" meant a bad smell, the Old English verb "stincan" simply meant to give off a smell of any kind, pleasant or foul. The sense narrowed over the centuries until only the unpleasant meaning was left. The Proto-Germanic root behind it, *stinkwan, is also the source of the verb's strong past tense "stank." The noun ending "-ness," from Old English "-nes(s)," turns an adjective into an abstract noun meaning "the quality of being" that adjective. Here the base is the adjective "stinking," the present participle of the verb, so "stinkingness" means the quality of being stinking, the state of giving off a foul odour. The form is less common than "stench," which entered English as a noun for smell and only later came to mean an offensive one.