Etymology

malodor

M3A1L1O1D2O1R1

Today it means: An offensive odor. Full definition →

English odor ← Old French mal- ← Latin male
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The story

  1. Proto-Indo-European*(s)mel-
  2. Proto-Indo-European*(s)molos?
  3. Proto-Italic*malos
  4. Latinmalus
  5. Latinmale
  6. Old Frenchmal-
  7. Englishmal-
  8. Englishodor
  9. English todaymalodor

From mal- (“bad”) + odor.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.