Meaning & Analysis
To emit a very foul and pungent odor, comparable to, or worse than, that of a polecat (a small mammal known for its strong, offensive smell).
Insights
Extreme Repulsiveness
The proverb is a vivid way to characterize something or someone as extremely unpleasant or repulsive, either literally (bad smell) or figuratively (bad character or reputation).
Social Ostracism
By equating someone to a polecat, it implies they are to be avoided or shunned by others, invoking imagery of natural aversion and exclusion.
Historical Symbolism
Polecats, closely related to skunks, have long been proverbial for their defensive stench. The association appears in English literature from the sixteenth century onward as a symbol of notorious offensiveness.
Cultural Parallels
The proverb is part of a wider tradition of using animal imagery to dramatize human faults. 'To stink like a brock' (badger) is a related expression, showing that strong-smelling animals universally symbolize extreme unpleasantness.
Psychological and Social Commentary
Such expressions reinforce social boundaries by making undesirable qualities vivid and memorable, strengthening group norms through humor and exaggeration.
Rhetorical Devices
Simile
The phrase uses direct comparison ('like a polecat') to intensify the description of foulness, making the insult concrete and forceful.
Hyperbole
Exaggerates the extent of the unpleasantness for dramatic and sometimes comic effect.
Animal Imagery
Draws on the polecat's infamous reputation, employing animal characteristics to sharpen the human comparison.
Transcription
Quotations
She shall stynke lyke a pole kat.
I'll make you stink worse than your pole-cats do.
Sh' as a breath stinks worse than fifty Polecats.
He stinks like a poll-cat.
Which made the crooked Vermin out stink a Pole-cat.
Cross References
Related Proverbs
Original Scan
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