Putrid means rotten, and smelling of decay. A putrid smell, putrid water, putrid flesh.
It is the strongest ordinary word for the smell of decomposition, and it is used literally in medicine and pathology. Figuratively it means thoroughly bad — a putrid performance — which is heavy slang and chiefly American. Note putrefy, putrefaction; and that the Latin puter meant rotting, from a root that also gives pus and foul.
1adjectiveputridRotten, and smelling of decay.
“A putrid smell came from the bin, which hadn't been emptied for weeks.”
putrid is a quality of decay.
Latin putridus comes from putrere, to be rotten, from puter. Pus, putrefy and the English foul come from the same rotting.
Proto-Indo-European
*puH-
Latin
putridus
Old French
putride
English, today
putrid
Built from
From Middle English -, from Old French putride, from Latin putridus. From Middle English -, borrowed from Old French putride or directly from Latin putridus (“rotten, decayed”), from putreō (“to be rotten or putrid”), from puter (“rotten, decaying, putrid”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA