Rancid

 WORD OF THE DAY

rancid / adjective / RAN-sid

Definition
1: having an unpleasant smell or taste usually from chemical change or decomposition
2a: distinctly unpleasant or distasteful
2b: offensive

Examples
“At a basic level, ghee is a type of clarified butter believed to have originated in India as a way to preserve butter from going rancid in the hot climate. Churned cream or butter is simmered slowly until the moisture evaporates and any browned milk solids are removed, resulting in a sumptuously rich, fragrant and nutty fat.”
— Aysha Imtiaz, BBC, 27 July 2022

The laborers at Chattahoochee Brick were subject to inhumane conditions including being beaten and fed rancid food, and some died there, Blackmon reported.
— J.d. Capelouto, ajc, 25 Nov. 2020

Did You Know?
Rancid and putrid and fetid—oh my! While all three words are used to describe unpleasant smells and tastes, each also traces its roots to a “stinky”
Latin word: rancid can be traced back to the Latin rancēre; the root of putrid shares an ancestor with putēre; and fetid comes from foetēre—all verbs meaning “to stink.”
Not long after entering the language in the early 17th century, rancid also developed a second, figurative sense which is used for non-gustatory and non-olfactory offenses, as in “rancid hypocrisy.”