What does ordure mean?
Ordure means excrement or other foul waste matter, but its figurative uses extend the word's strongly negative force to anything perceived as filthy, degrading, or morally offensive. In literal contexts, it can describe human or animal waste without the euphemistic tone of terms such as “muck,” while remaining more literary and censorious than the comparatively neutral “excrement.” Figuratively, writers may call corrupt conduct, degrading writing, or an offensive spectacle “ordure,” using the word to emphasize moral revulsion. The expression is now uncommon in everyday neutral speech and tends to appear in formal, literary, historical, or deliberately provocative contexts. Its effect is therefore both descriptive and evaluative: it identifies something as waste or filth while simultaneously expressing strong disgust. The word belongs chiefly to the vocabulary of disgust and condemnation.
nounExcrement or other foul waste matter. By extension, it can refer to anything regarded as filthy, degrading, or morally offensive.
- Excrement or other foul waste matter.
- Filthy, degrading, or morally offensive material, speech, or conduct.
"The alley was slick with rain, mud, and human ordure."
"The workers cleared piles of ordure from the blocked drain."
"She dismissed the accusation of political ordure as malicious slander."
The plural is rare and generally appears in literary or technical contexts.
"Several ordures had accumulated near the stable entrance."
Ordure began as a word for physical filth but could also condemn what people considered morally rotten.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Where does ordure come from?
The English word entered Middle English from Old French ordure, which carried meanings associated with filth and dung. The deeper derivation of the French word is not securely established, so assigning it more specific Latin or Germanic ancestry would be speculative. Modern French retains ordure, and related Romance forms preserve the same general sense of filth or refuse.
How ordure is actually used
Chiefly literary, formal, or archaic. It is more openly censorious than neutral words such as “excrement” and is often used to convey disgust, moral condemnation, or rhetorical disgust.