Word of the Day for Wednesday, December 28, 2011
fusty \FUHS-tee\, adjective:
1. Having a stale smell; moldy; musty.
2. Old-fashioned or out-of-date, as architecture, furnishings, or the like.
3. Stubbornly conservative or old-fashioned; fogyish.
He could even smell the old woman in the buggy beside him, smell the fusty camphor-reeking shawl and even the airless black cotton umbrella in which (he would not discover until they had reached the house) she had concealed a hatchet and a flashlight.
-- William Faulkner, "Absalom, Absalom!"
I won't stop accusing you of being fusty if you don't stop acting that way. For God's sake, what is wrong with seeing what a rock concert is like? I'd like to find out.
-- Lionel Shriver, "The Female of the Species"
Fusty comes from the Old French word fust, meaning a “wine cask.” As wine casks are stuffy and smelly, the adjective is a logical association.
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