Etymology

foulsome

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Today it means: Characterised or marked by foulness or filth; filthy; (by extension) wretched. Full definition →

Middle English fulsome
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The story

  1. Middle English · inherited fromfulsome“arousing disgust, loathsome”
  2. English todayfoulsome

A variant of fulsome, from Middle English fulsome (“arousing disgust, loathsome”), remodelled after foul. Equivalent to foul + -some. Cognate with Scots foulsome, fowsum.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.