Think of standing a few steps away from something that has been rotting for days. You do not need to touch it or look closely — the smell has already reached you, and you want to move back. That smell is what this word carries everywhere it goes. Pointed at meat or pond water, it is literal. Pointed at a colour, a performance or a corrupt company, the speaker is saying that thing affects them the same way.
From the word’s history
The supplied Wiktionary entry traces putrid to Latin putridus (rotten, decayed), from putreō (to be rotten), from puter. English took it through Old French putride and Middle English. The root has meant rotting from the start, which is why the smell sits so firmly inside the modern word.
packet 裡的 Wiktionary 資料把 putrid 追到拉丁文 putridus（腐爛的），再往上是 putreō（腐爛）和 puter，經古法文 putride 和中古英文進入英文。這個字根從一開始就在講腐爛，所以現在的 putrid 才會把「爛掉」和「聞得到」綁得這麼緊。
Wiktionary entry supplied in this batch's evidence packet (source_ref kaikki:3f6f69a190036ae4:677299375)
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