The story
- Old English · inherited fromfūlnes“foulness”
- Middle English · inherited fromfoulnesse
- English todayfoulness
From Middle English foulnesse, foulnes, from Old English fūlnes (“foulness”), equivalent to foul + -ness. Compare Dutch vuilnis (“rubbish; garbage; trash”).
Words from the same roots
Old Englishfūlnes all →
fullness
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.