# Usage of the word "ripe"
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/usage-of-the-word-ripe/623179
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [May 26, 2012, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/usage-of-the-word-ripe/623179 "2012-05-26T15:37:24Z")
**Posts on this page:** 9
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@EmilyG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EmilyG)
#### Post date: [May 26, 2012, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/usage-of-the-word-ripe/623179/1 "2012-05-26T15:37:24Z")
I’m wondering - when did the word “ripe” come to mean “bad-smelling”? Has this usage always been around, or is it a more recent thing?
---
### Author:  [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)
#### Post date: [May 26, 2012, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/usage-of-the-word-ripe/623179/2 "2012-05-26T15:42:15Z")
I am 38 and the usage has been around for most of my life. I first heard it used that way in reference of poop filled baby diapers and it is used as a bit of a joke. Just a WAG but that may be a comparison to fancy cheeses which ‘ripen’ and sometimes smell quite bad unlike fruits and vegetables which generally don’t
---
### Author:  [@OldGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OldGuy)
#### Post date: [May 26, 2012, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/usage-of-the-word-ripe/623179/3 "2012-05-26T18:10:10Z")
Generally things that are rip smell much more than before they ripen. Of course, in the case of fruits, ripe things usually smell sweet. It doesn’t seem too much of a stretch to apply the word ripe to foul smelling things, and I’ve heard this usage for as long as I can remember – which is quite a while as I’m 63.
---
### Author:  [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)
#### Post date: [May 26, 2012, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/usage-of-the-word-ripe/623179/4 "2012-05-26T21:58:51Z")
A properly ripe cheese can be notoriously stinky, such as is the case with limburger and other smear cheeses.
---
### Author:  [@aldiboronti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aldiboronti)
#### Post date: [May 26, 2012, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/usage-of-the-word-ripe/623179/5 "2012-05-26T22:03:53Z")
It’s a development of the sense below from the OED. See the 1962 quote, although some earlier quotes have the connotation of pungency, perhaps unpleasant.
> [@](#):
>
> ripe, adj.
>
> 1.
>
> d. Of a flavour or scent: characteristic of a food or drink in its ripened state; rich, intense; pungent. Hence (in later use) of body odour: pungent, rank.
> 1693 W. Congreve in Dryden tr. Juvenal Satires xi. 224 Apples, of a Ripe Flavour, Fresh and Fair.
> 1820 F. Accum Treat. Adulterations of Food 272 Oak saw-dust, and a spirituous tincture of raisin stones, are likewise used to impart to new brandy and rum a ripe taste, resembling brandy or rum long kept in oaken casks.
> 1837 Gardener’s Mag. Sept. 405 They have not the ripe smell that is peculiar to truffles.
> 1878 T. Hardy Return of Native (1990) ii. ii. 110 Another nook, where more mellow fruit greeted her with its ripe smell.
> 1920 R. Curle Wanderings vi. 76, I sucked a piece of fresh cane and experienced, at last, the real, ripe flavour of the raw sugar.
> 1962 J. H. Giles Voy. to Santa Fe xxii. 268 Jesse, he smells right ripe, though likely you ain’t noticed it.
> 1991 O. Clarke Webster’s Wine Guide 1992 45/2 The wines are not big, but are almost creamy in their gorgeous ripe taste, deliciously so.
> 2002 N. Griffiths Kelly + Victor 26, I‥am acutely aware of the smell, the stink, the ripe bleedin stench rising up from me crotch an armpits.
---
### Author:  [@ExcitedIdiot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ExcitedIdiot)
#### Post date: [May 26, 2012, 10:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/usage-of-the-word-ripe/623179/6 "2012-05-26T22:59:59Z")
[QUOTE=OED]
I‥am acutely aware of the smell, the stink, the ripe bleedin stench rising up from me crotch an armpits.
[/QUOTE]
That made me chuckle.
---
### Author:  [@EmilyG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EmilyG)
#### Post date: [May 26, 2012, 11:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/usage-of-the-word-ripe/623179/7 "2012-05-26T23:53:33Z")
Thanks, folks!
---
### Author:  [@md2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md2000)
#### Post date: [May 27, 2012, 4:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/usage-of-the-word-ripe/623179/8 "2012-05-27T04:58:14Z")
I imagined it came from cheese and more likely meat, in the days before refrigeration.
---
### Author:  [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)
#### Post date: [May 27, 2012, 10:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/usage-of-the-word-ripe/623179/9 "2012-05-27T10:51:17Z")
The first pop culture reference I can think of was in the “Ghostbusters” movie. Bill Murray says that little Oscar (played by John Denver’s nephew(s)) is getting a little “ripe.”