“Fusty” might sound like a word made up to serve as a rhyme of “dusty,” but it has an enological (relating to wine) origin. The Old French word “fuste” means “smelling of the cask.” If you’ve ever been in a wine cellar and smelled the particular aroma of aging wine, that’s fusty. Aged wine is certainly desirable, but “fusty” has also come to describe anything old-fashioned, tired, and stale. The original aged meaning holds, but the additional connotation can apply literally and also figuratively in the personality department.