Etymology

smelly

S1M3E1L1L1Y4

Today it means: Having a bad smell. Full definition →

English smell ← Middle English smellen ← Old English *smiellan
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smelly · adjective, noun1

  1. Proto-Indo-European*smel-
  2. Proto-West Germanic*smalljan
  3. Old English*smiellan
  4. Middle Englishsmellen
  5. Englishsmell
  6. English todaysmelly

From smell + -y.

smelly · noun2

A comical pronunciation of the initials SMLE.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.