海角大神

Last week we talked about how English has very few 鈥渁bstract smell words,鈥� words that pick out underlying similarities among diverse smells. English-speakers, along with most people who do not live as hunter-gatherers, are generally quite bad at identifying odors. When tested, most people can name only about 50 percent of even familiar aromas such as coffee, cinnamon, and garlic. But we do know when something stinks. For bad smells, we have a fairly rich, if nonspecific, vocabulary.

Many words indicate that something offends our noses without characterizing the smell. Stench indicates that you find it disagreeable, but it could be dirty socks, rotting vegetables, or leaking gas. Fetid likewise describes 鈥渁n offensive smell鈥� without adding much detail about how it smells; in the same way, mephitic 鈥� usually used for gases or air 鈥� means 鈥渇oul-smelling鈥� or 鈥渙ffensive to the smell,鈥� according to the Oxford English Dictionary. In the Renaissance through the 18th century, noisome (from the Old French word for 鈥渁nnoy鈥�) could apply to anything from smoke to mud to cellar air to excrement.

Meat going bad can be putrid or rank, implying advanced decomposition. A rancid smell is 鈥渟tale and sour,鈥� like old butter, oil, or fish, spoiled but just beginning to decay. Nidor and its adjective, nidorous, indicate the smell of burning meat or fat, as produced by tallow candles or 鈥渆ructation,鈥� as the great 18th-century lexicographer Samuel Johnson explains in his dictionary 鈥� a nidorosity is an especially sulfuric burp. Today few of us regularly encounter strong smells of these kinds. In the not-so-distant past, however, without garbage collection, refrigeration, or sewage systems, there was much more occasion for such words.

English words that describe good smells are few and far between. An aroma is generally pleasant or at least inoffensive, and a fragrant perfume or spice gives off sweet smells. Redolent was originally one of these rare beasts; flowers, meadows, and wine all had 鈥渞edolent鈥� 鈥� meaning 鈥渟weet-smelling, fragrant鈥� 鈥� odors during the 15th to 18th centuries. Its sense has since shifted, and it is sometimes now used as yet another nonspecific descriptor of unpleasant smells, as in a 鈥渞edolent stench.鈥澛�

But in today鈥檚 usage the word retains a positive connotation. When we say something is 鈥渞edolent of鈥� or 鈥渞edolent with鈥� something else, we mean that it is suggestive or reminiscent of it. The word can be used literally (鈥渢he stew was redolent of peppers and garlic鈥�) or more figuratively (鈥渢he air was redolent of spring,鈥� or 鈥渢he buildings were redolent of antiquity鈥�). Redolent highlights the strong connection between sense and recollection.