Stank
/stæŋk/noun
Simple past tense and past participle of stink; also a noun meaning a strong bad smell or a place that stinks.
Did you know?Its oldest ancestor is a Germanic sound-word tied to odors, showing how some of the most basic words in English were built from instinctive human reactions rather than elegant Latin.
Etymological Timeline
Proto-Germanic
PGmc
*stinkananą
“to emit a strong smell; to stink”
Old English
OE
stincan
“to emit a smell, especially a strong or offensive one”
Middle English
ME
stinken
“to stink; give off a bad odor”
Modern English
English
stank
“past tense form of stink; also a noun for a bad smell”