Stunk
/stʌŋk/noun
Simple past tense and past participle of stink, meaning to emit a strong, unpleasant odor.
Did you know?English *stink* is a very old Germanic word, and its ancestry reaches back to a root meaning something like “to emit smoke or vapor,” showing how smell and visible fumes were once conceptually linked.
Etymological Timeline
Proto-Indo-European
PIE
*stengʷ-
“to drip, ooze, or flow out”
Proto-Germanic
PGmc
*stinkaną
“to emit a strong smell”
Old English
English
stincan
“to give off a smell, usually unpleasant”
Middle English
English
stinken
“to smell bad”
Modern English
English
stink / stunk
“to emit a strong unpleasant odor; stunk is the past tense and past participle”