DCHP-2

fousty fausty DCHP-2 (July 2016)

• adj. — Newfoundland, dated

  mouldy, having a bad smell.

  Type: 2. Preservation — The roots of fousty can be traced back to West Country English, the dialects of southwest England (Clarke 2010b: 105), where it was spelled "fusty". "Fusty" derives from "fust", a noun meaning 'a mouldy or bad smell' (OED-3, s.v. "fusty"). Because of the large number of immigrants from the West Country to Newfoundland in the 18th and 19th centuries, the term has remained in the province's lexicon. Fousty appears today on the internet most frequently in Canada, with the UK in second place (see Chart 1).
  See also COD-2, s.v. "fousty", which is marked "Cdn (Nfld)", DNE, s.v. "fousty".

  See also: smatchy (meaning 1b)  

  • Used often in connection with food items, as the quotations illustrate.
  • The term is a dialectal English variant of fusty 'smelling stale, damp etc.' that has become institutionalized in Newfoundland and Labrador throughout the 20th century.