halitosis

English

Etymology

Coined by doctor Joseph William Howe in 1874 and described as being derived from the Latin hālitus (literally “whiff, breath”) and the Ancient Greek νόσος (nósos, literally “disease”). It can be also understood as combination of the Latin hālitus and the English suffix -osis.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /hæl.ɪˈtəʊ.sɪs/

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

• (US) IPA^(key): /hæl.ɪˈtoʊ.sɪs/
• (General Australian) IPA^(key): /hæl.ɪˈtəʉ.sɪs/
• Rhymes: -əʊsɪs

Noun

halitosis (countable and uncountable, plural halitoses)

1. (pathology) The condition of having stale or foul-smelling breath.
   • 2004, Dicken Weatherby, Signs and Symptoms Analysis from a Functional Perspective, Weatherby & Associates, LLC, →ISBN, page 115:

     Bad breath or halitosis is an indication of a disturbed digestive system. It is indicative of a bowel toxemia in either the small or large intestine with an overgrowth of bacteria or yeast.

   • [2018 June 13, Michael Schein, “Author Simon Sinek Is Full Of Hot Air (And Other Reasons You Should Follow His Lead)”, in Forbes‎^[1]:

     For example, the word halitosis was almost completely unknown among the general public until the early 20th century when a business owner named Gerard Lambert started using it to sell a new product called Listerine. By giving a mundane fact of life (bad breath) a scientific sounding label, Lambert elevated the authority and desirability of his product many times over.]

Synonyms

• bromopnea
• fetor oris
• ozostomia
• stomatodysodia

Related terms

• inhale
• exhale

Translations

condition of having foul-smelling breath

• Arabic: بَخَر m (baḵar)
• Bulgarian: лош дъх m (loš dǎh)
• Catalan: halitosi f
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 口臭 (zh) (kǒuchòu)

• Czech: halitóza (cs) f
• Dutch: foetor ex ore
• Esperanto: halitozo
• Finnish: pahanhajuinen hengitys, halitoosi (fi)
• French: halitose (fr)
• Galician: halitose (gl) f
• German: Mundgeruch (de) m
• Hebrew: באשת
• Icelandic: andremma f, andfýla (is) f
• Italian: alitosi (it)
• Japanese: 口臭 (ja) (こうしゅう, kōshū)
• Korean: 구취 (ko) (guchwi)
• Latin: fētor ēx ōre m
• Maori: hāpiro
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: halitose m, dårlig ånde m

• Persian: بوی بد دهان, گنده‌دهانی (gande-dahâni)
• Polish: cuchnący oddech
• Portuguese: halitose (pt) f
• Russian: галито́з m (galitóz), неприя́тный за́пах и́зо рта́ m (neprijátnyj zápax ízo rtá)
• Spanish: halitosis (es) f
• Swedish: dålig andedräkt c, foetor ex ore
• Telugu: నోటి దుర్వాసన (nōṭi durvāsana)

See also

• bad breath

Spanish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /aliˈtosis/ [a.liˈt̪o.sis]
• Rhymes: -osis
• Syllabification: ha‧li‧to‧sis

Noun

halitosis f (plural halitosis)

1. halitosis

Further reading

• “halitosis”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.7, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 2023 November 28