Literary notes about fetor (AI summary)
The term "fetor" is employed with a dual function in literature, serving both as a description of literal, offensive odors and as a metaphor for decay or corruption. In some texts it vividly describes the acrid smell accompanying decomposition or disease, enhancing the sensory impact of a scene, as when the rotten odor associated with bodily decay is depicted in clinical or Gothic contexts [1, 2, 3]. On the other hand, its use can be more symbolic, conveying moral or spiritual degradation, as seen in literary works where the smell alludes to a pervasive, germinal corruption in character or circumstance [4, 5]. Whether in a scientific description recommending therapeutic measures for a foul discharge [6, 7, 8] or in a literary passage evoking an atmosphere of putrefaction and gloom [9, 10], "fetor" thus enriches narratives by linking the physical sense of smell to broader themes of decay and transformation.
- 'Quid turpius ebrioso? cui fetor in ore, tremor in corpore, qui promittit multa, promit occulta, cui mens alienatur, facies transformatur?
— from Chaucer's Works, Volume 3 (of 7) — The House of Fame; The Legend of Good Women; The Treatise on the Astrolabe; The Sources of the Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer - He was blinded by light and deafened by sound and his nostrils were filled with the nauseating fetor of jungle and decay.
— from Operation Terror by Murray Leinster - If these gentlemen were wounded, perchance, they added stale blood, putrefaction, and offal to their abominable fetor.
— from The Cup of Fury: A Novel of Cities and Shipyards by Rupert Hughes - DR PUNCH COSTELLO: The fetor judaicus is most perceptible.
— from Ulysses by James Joyce - Do they, as many saints have done, smell the fetor of sin, the foul reek of evil in the souls that pass by them?
— from The Cathedral by J.-K. (Joris-Karl) Huysmans - As the discharge is usually very offensive, the solution opposite will correct its fetor, and should be injected or poured in the ear.
— from The Dog by William Youatt - Acid, Carbolic: as application or injection into tumor to lessen pain, retard growth and diminish fetor.
— from Merck's 1899 Manual of the Materia Medica by Merck & Co. - Charcoal: to prevent fetor of stools, accumulation of fetid gas, and to disinfect stools after passage.
— from Merck's 1899 Manual of the Materia Medica by Merck & Co. - Suddenly the suit was full of the earthy fetor of the monster's body, nauseatingly intense.
— from Salvage in Space by Jack Williamson - “In vain it was to rake for Ambergriese in the paunch of this Leviathan, insufferable fetor denying not inquiry.”
— from Moby Dick; Or, The Whale by Herman Melville
