"mephitis" meaning in English

See mephitis in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

IPA: /məˈfaɪ.tɪs/ Forms: mephitises [plural]
Etymology: From Latin mefītis, mephītis, from the name of a Samnite goddess who personified the poisonous gases emitted from swamps and volcanoes. Etymology templates: {{dercat|en|osc|itc-pro}}, {{der|en|la|mefītis}} Latin mefītis, {{m|la|mephītis}} mephītis Head templates: {{en-noun|~}} mephitis (countable and uncountable, plural mephitises)
  1. A poisonous or foul-smelling gas, especially as emitted from the earth; an unpleasant smell. Tags: countable, uncountable Synonyms (unpleasant smell): malodour, stench, reek, mephitism
    Sense id: en-mephitis-en-noun-GZSQ0cnb Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, English entries with language name categories using raw markup Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 46 54 Disambiguation of English entries with language name categories using raw markup: 48 52 Disambiguation of 'unpleasant smell': 94 6
  2. (homeopathy) A dilution of fluids derived from skunks or polecats. Tags: countable, uncountable Categories (topical): Homeopathy
    Sense id: en-mephitis-en-noun-TGz7wna~ Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, English entries with language name categories using raw markup Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 46 54 Disambiguation of English entries with language name categories using raw markup: 48 52 Topics: homeopathy, medicine, sciences
The following are not (yet) sense-disambiguated
Derived forms: mephitic

Inflected forms

Download JSON data for mephitis meaning in English (5.2kB)

{
  "derived": [
    {
      "_dis1": "0 0",
      "word": "mephitic"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "osc",
        "3": "itc-pro"
      },
      "expansion": "",
      "name": "dercat"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "la",
        "3": "mefītis"
      },
      "expansion": "Latin mefītis",
      "name": "der"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "la",
        "2": "mephītis"
      },
      "expansion": "mephītis",
      "name": "m"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "From Latin mefītis, mephītis, from the name of a Samnite goddess who personified the poisonous gases emitted from swamps and volcanoes.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "mephitises",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "~"
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      "expansion": "mephitis (countable and uncountable, plural mephitises)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "_dis": "46 54",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
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          "source": "w+disamb"
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          "_dis": "48 52",
          "kind": "other",
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            "Entries with language name categories using raw markup",
            "Entry maintenance"
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          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1822, Samuel Griswold Goodrich, Cabinet of curiosities: natural, artificial, and historical, page 140",
          "text": "The Abbe had, in the district of Latera, observed that in a mephitis of hydrogenous sulphurated or hepatic gas, a slow combustion of phosphorus took place, with the same resplendence as in the atmospheric air.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1868, John Loraine Abbott, The Home-book of Wonders, in Nature, Science and Art, page 135",
          "text": "He attempted several times to fire inflammable gas, with electric sparks, in the mephitic vapor, by means of the conductor of the electrophus; but, notwithstanding his utmost endeavors to animate the electricity, he could never obtain a single spark, the non-conductor becoming a conductor the moment it entered into the mephitis, on account of the humidity which adhered to its surface.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1883, George MacDonald, Paul Faber, Surgeon",
          "text": "and not seldom did the fire which the torch of his prophecy had kindled upon her altar, kindle again that torch, when some bitter wind of evil words, or mephitis of human perversity, or thunder rain of foiled charity, […]",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2008, Peter Cunningham, The Sea and the Silence, page 1",
          "text": "[…] conveyancing of property to a background of ships loading or discharging and the clanging of wharf cranes, but in August, when the tide was low, the River Lyle's gum-like, perspiring mud banks released a mephitis […]",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A poisonous or foul-smelling gas, especially as emitted from the earth; an unpleasant smell."
      ],
      "id": "en-mephitis-en-noun-GZSQ0cnb",
      "links": [
        [
          "gas",
          "gas"
        ],
        [
          "smell",
          "smell#English"
        ]
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "_dis1": "94 6",
          "sense": "unpleasant smell",
          "word": "malodour"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "94 6",
          "sense": "unpleasant smell",
          "word": "stench"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "94 6",
          "sense": "unpleasant smell",
          "word": "reek"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "94 6",
          "sense": "unpleasant smell",
          "word": "mephitism"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "countable",
        "uncountable"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "topical",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Homeopathy",
          "orig": "en:Homeopathy",
          "parents": [
            "Alternative medicine",
            "Medicine",
            "Pseudoscience",
            "Biology",
            "Sciences",
            "All topics",
            "Fundamental"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "46 54",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
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          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "48 52",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with language name categories using raw markup",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with language name categories using raw markup",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1854, C. Neidhard, “Mephitis Putorius and Other Remedies in Hooping Cough”, in The British Journal of Homoeopathy, page 436",
          "text": "Mephitis, in water, did not at first relieve the cough, so that I was compelled to prescribe another remedy; but after taking this for a short time, the father averred that he thought the first remedy, Mephitis, had a better effect than the last.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1907, American Institute of Homeopathy, Transactions of the Sixty-third Sessions, page 501",
          "text": "I do not see why Dr. Hensley should object to the internal administration of Variolinum any more than to that of lachesis, mephitis, etc.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1906, Nashville Journal of Medicine and Surgery, volume 74, page 60",
          "text": "Mephitis, a highly prized remedy of the Homeopaths, is prepared by taking one part. in weight, of the characteristic fluid expelled by the pole-cat and dissolving it in ninety parts of alcohol.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A dilution of fluids derived from skunks or polecats."
      ],
      "id": "en-mephitis-en-noun-TGz7wna~",
      "links": [
        [
          "homeopathy",
          "homeopathy"
        ],
        [
          "skunks",
          "skunk#English"
        ],
        [
          "polecats",
          "polecat#English"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(homeopathy) A dilution of fluids derived from skunks or polecats."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "countable",
        "uncountable"
      ],
      "topics": [
        "homeopathy",
        "medicine",
        "sciences"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/məˈfaɪ.tɪs/"
    }
  ],
  "word": "mephitis"
}
{
  "categories": [
    "English 3-syllable words",
    "English countable nouns",
    "English entries with incorrect language header",
    "English entries with language name categories using raw markup",
    "English eponyms",
    "English lemmas",
    "English nouns",
    "English terms derived from Latin",
    "English terms derived from Oscan",
    "English terms derived from Proto-Italic",
    "English terms with IPA pronunciation",
    "English uncountable nouns"
  ],
  "derived": [
    {
      "word": "mephitic"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "osc",
        "3": "itc-pro"
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      "name": "dercat"
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    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
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        "3": "mefītis"
      },
      "expansion": "Latin mefītis",
      "name": "der"
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    {
      "args": {
        "1": "la",
        "2": "mephītis"
      },
      "expansion": "mephītis",
      "name": "m"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "From Latin mefītis, mephītis, from the name of a Samnite goddess who personified the poisonous gases emitted from swamps and volcanoes.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "mephitises",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "~"
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      "expansion": "mephitis (countable and uncountable, plural mephitises)",
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  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English terms with quotations"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1822, Samuel Griswold Goodrich, Cabinet of curiosities: natural, artificial, and historical, page 140",
          "text": "The Abbe had, in the district of Latera, observed that in a mephitis of hydrogenous sulphurated or hepatic gas, a slow combustion of phosphorus took place, with the same resplendence as in the atmospheric air.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1868, John Loraine Abbott, The Home-book of Wonders, in Nature, Science and Art, page 135",
          "text": "He attempted several times to fire inflammable gas, with electric sparks, in the mephitic vapor, by means of the conductor of the electrophus; but, notwithstanding his utmost endeavors to animate the electricity, he could never obtain a single spark, the non-conductor becoming a conductor the moment it entered into the mephitis, on account of the humidity which adhered to its surface.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1883, George MacDonald, Paul Faber, Surgeon",
          "text": "and not seldom did the fire which the torch of his prophecy had kindled upon her altar, kindle again that torch, when some bitter wind of evil words, or mephitis of human perversity, or thunder rain of foiled charity, […]",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2008, Peter Cunningham, The Sea and the Silence, page 1",
          "text": "[…] conveyancing of property to a background of ships loading or discharging and the clanging of wharf cranes, but in August, when the tide was low, the River Lyle's gum-like, perspiring mud banks released a mephitis […]",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A poisonous or foul-smelling gas, especially as emitted from the earth; an unpleasant smell."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "gas",
          "gas"
        ],
        [
          "smell",
          "smell#English"
        ]
      ],
      "tags": [
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        "uncountable"
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    {
      "categories": [
        "English terms with quotations",
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      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1854, C. Neidhard, “Mephitis Putorius and Other Remedies in Hooping Cough”, in The British Journal of Homoeopathy, page 436",
          "text": "Mephitis, in water, did not at first relieve the cough, so that I was compelled to prescribe another remedy; but after taking this for a short time, the father averred that he thought the first remedy, Mephitis, had a better effect than the last.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1907, American Institute of Homeopathy, Transactions of the Sixty-third Sessions, page 501",
          "text": "I do not see why Dr. Hensley should object to the internal administration of Variolinum any more than to that of lachesis, mephitis, etc.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1906, Nashville Journal of Medicine and Surgery, volume 74, page 60",
          "text": "Mephitis, a highly prized remedy of the Homeopaths, is prepared by taking one part. in weight, of the characteristic fluid expelled by the pole-cat and dissolving it in ninety parts of alcohol.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A dilution of fluids derived from skunks or polecats."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "homeopathy",
          "homeopathy"
        ],
        [
          "skunks",
          "skunk#English"
        ],
        [
          "polecats",
          "polecat#English"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(homeopathy) A dilution of fluids derived from skunks or polecats."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "countable",
        "uncountable"
      ],
      "topics": [
        "homeopathy",
        "medicine",
        "sciences"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/məˈfaɪ.tɪs/"
    }
  ],
  "synonyms": [
    {
      "sense": "unpleasant smell",
      "word": "malodour"
    },
    {
      "sense": "unpleasant smell",
      "word": "stench"
    },
    {
      "sense": "unpleasant smell",
      "word": "reek"
    },
    {
      "sense": "unpleasant smell",
      "word": "mephitism"
    }
  ],
  "word": "mephitis"
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-05-09 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-05-02 using wiktextract (4d5d0bb and edd475d). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

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