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Word of the Day for Friday March 26, 2004

   mephitic \muh-FIT-ik\, adjective:
   1. Offensive to the smell; as, mephitic odors.
   2. Poisonous; noxious.

     The mephitic stench from the bilge became overpowering.
     --Richard   Holmes,   [1]Coleridge:   Darker   Reflections,
     1804-1834

     Over  everything  presides  "a  sort  of  mephitic  fog," a
     pervasive sulfuric stink.
     --Dale  Peck,  "Way  Outback," [2]New York Times, March 22,
     1998

    ... unpoisoned by the mephitic vapours which poisoned the
     atmosphere of his police-office.
     --Henry Fielding, [3]Tom Jones
     _________________________________________________________

   Mephitic  is  the adjective form of mephitis, "a foul-smelling
   or  noxious  exhalation  from  the  earth;  a  stench from any
   source," from the Latin.

References

   1. http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0375708383/ref%3Dnosim/lexico
   2. http://www.nytimes.com/
   3. http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0192834975/ref%3Dnosim/lexico

Dictionary.com Entry and Pronunciation

   http://dictionary.reference.com/search?r=9&q=mephitic

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