"In English, there are only three dedicated smell words"

November 11, 2015 9:19 AM

Why Do Most Languages Have So Few Words for Smells?

Why Are Smells So Difficult To Describe In Words?

When people—English speaking people, anyway—describe odors, what they are actually doing much of the time is describing the source of the odor. Orange-y. Smokey-. Skunk-y. This seems natural enough, but it’s fundamentally different from how we describe other sensory experiences.

It's because you have an Uneducated Nose. If you spoke a different language, like Jahai, you could escape the common fragrance descriptions and their references to other things.
Can You Name That Smell?
Odors are expressible in language, as long as you speak the right language, Asifa Majida, Niclas Burenhultb.

Just be glad you have a sense of smell instead of living in A World Without Scent

posted by the man of twists and turns (54 comments total)

I keep thinking someone should make a museum of smells. Part of the problem is that we react emotionally to odor and don't bother to ask some basic questions about what we're experiencing. Let's put a whole bunch of alcohols together and, umm, smell them. Ketones! Aldehydes! My left foot!
posted by sneebler at 9:29 AM on November 11, 2015

For example, the term pʔus (pronounced ‘pa-oos’) describes the smell of old huts, day-old food, and cabbage

Musty? Dank? Rotten? Moldy? Sour?

We have plenty of words for smell. I don't get it.
posted by tempestuoso at 9:50 AM on November 11, 2015 [5 favorites]

• dank means wet (in a bad way)
• rotten is what food is when it becomes inedible
• moldy ... covered in mold
• sour is a flavor

We can co-opt words for other things to describe smells. We don't have to do that for colors. Except orange, maybe?
posted by LogicalDash at 9:54 AM on November 11, 2015 [7 favorites]

A lot of those words pertain to taste as well, or to things other than smell, and are not exclusively smell words, I think.
posted by and they trembled before her fury at 9:55 AM on November 11, 2015

Is it really a 'co-opting' of taste words to describe smell, given how much of an effect smell has on taste/flavor? They are separate things, certainly, but in terms of how we experience the world, they are intricately linked (as anyone who has ever eaten supposedly highly spiced food with a completely stuffed-up nose can attest).
posted by tocts at 10:09 AM on November 11, 2015 [3 favorites]

Musty is not a taste.

Also: acrid, sulfurous, fetid, fishy, fresh, floral, loamy, masculine, moist, pungent, putrid, rancid, stale, sweaty, sweet, and tart.
posted by Kirth Gerson at 10:13 AM on November 11, 2015 [8 favorites]

mmmmm, aldehydes.
posted by sneebler at 10:16 AM on November 11, 2015

I think the author hasn't looked closely enough at the words we use for colours... take the cited example "Yellow" - google etymology suggests that yellow may have come from the word for gelou, and this is associated with the word for "gold", so when it was applied to gold - was it applied to the thing (the substance) or to the "colour of" the thing?

Further is it really clear that "musty" is actually of "smell"-based origin? Given that it was likely a a cross usage of the word Moist anyway?

There is something distinct about smells though - they are very hard to compare with each other for instance, and can be difficult to definitely locate and hence associate with an object.
posted by mary8nne at 10:27 AM on November 11, 2015 [1 favorite]

A Vibrational theory of smell
posted by lalochezia at 10:31 AM on November 11, 2015 [2 favorites]

Previously : The smell of rain and Sulfur/Selenium
posted by lalochezia at 10:35 AM on November 11, 2015 [1 favorite]

Sour is too a smell. Vinegar smells sour, sometimes so does sweat. And blue cheese tastes musty to me (hence I do not like blue cheese). And blue cheese, by the way, is not blue, nor am I actually blue when I'm sad, and yet everybody knows exactly what is meant by it. All words are metaphors. Verbs get nounified, nouns get adjectivized, etc. etc. etc. nothing new there.

If I say an orange is yellow and smells sour, you probably know exactly what I mean. If I say milk is yellow and smells sour, you probably know exactly what I mean. Is that the same as having a precise word for what spoiled milk smells like on a windy day in a drafty room in November? No. But that's why more words can be added to modify the sentence as needed.

But if a society found itself often needing to describe the state of spoiled milk in a drafty room in November, it would likely come up with a shorter word. And in 100 years, someone will proclaim how this language is more rich than that other language because it has 37 words to describe the odor of spoiled milk.
posted by tempestuoso at 10:41 AM on November 11, 2015 [3 favorites]

Gamey.
posted by Steakfrites at 10:48 AM on November 11, 2015 [3 favorites]

"We don't need to say that a banana “looks like lemon;” we can just say that it's yellow."

Banana you glad he didn't say orange?
posted by Earthtopus at 10:51 AM on November 11, 2015 [6 favorites]

Flinty. Metallic. Off. The authors make a preposterous claim.
posted by Steakfrites at 10:52 AM on November 11, 2015 [1 favorite]

Eat.
Don't Eat.
Eh...Maybe.

I'm not sure what more you could need.
posted by Thorzdad at 11:06 AM on November 11, 2015 [1 favorite]

Thorzdad, we need at least three: eat? fuck? Or throw it away.
posted by clew at 11:18 AM on November 11, 2015 [2 favorites]

Flinty. Metallic. Off. The authors make a preposterous claim.

Without meaning to get into defending the claim, these don't invalidate it:

"Flinty" could describe anything having any of the properties of flint. "A flinty stone which is used for tool making by the Venusians". Same goes for metallic.

"That foods looks off".

The claim is about dedicated words, and the problem is not that there are counterexamples, but rather that (as stated above) no word is a pure articulated definition of a concept. Derrida and/or Quine (depending on your tastes in philosophy of language) have pretty much got all the problems with this covered already.
posted by howfar at 11:36 AM on November 11, 2015 [2 favorites]

Thorzdad, we need at least three: eat? fuck? Or throw it away.

Surely you mean DTMFA. A specific smell cue for "lawyer up" and "seek therapy" could also be helpful.

Coming soon on SmellMe!
posted by GenjiandProust at 11:47 AM on November 11, 2015 [1 favorite]

ObligatoryC&H
posted by Greg_Ace at 11:55 AM on November 11, 2015 [3 favorites]

the smell of old huts, day-old food, and cabbage

Oh, man, it's Cafeteria Smell!

I really do wish English had a word for this smell.

(On the other hand, only three words for smells? In trying to guess what the three words were before clicking the Atlantic link, I came up with one they didn't use, pungent. Which makes me think there are probably more than three.)
posted by Sara C. at 12:14 PM on November 11, 2015 [1 favorite]

And blue cheese, by the way, is not blue

If the blue-green fungus doesn't look at least a little bluish to you, it might be that you only have access to bad imitations, which could also explain why you don't like it.
posted by effbot at 12:38 PM on November 11, 2015 [1 favorite]

We know a great deal about the origins of English words. Dismissing odour-terms like "musty" because they are related to other, non-odour terms will is unreasonable: most words can be shown to have an etymological relationship to other words. Also, I suspect that the same thing may apply to languages with "many" odour-terms: those words are actually related to non-odour terms, but the author didn't disclose (more likely: know) the relationship.
posted by Joe in Australia at 12:59 PM on November 11, 2015 [3 favorites]

Using the same words for tastes and smells makes perfect sense to me, because I was taught at an early age that the two senses of smell and taste are mostly the same thing in the way the sense receptors work. Unless there have been biological breakthroughs in the last 40 years that nullify that concept, I'm sticking with it.

But then, I know damn well what shit smells like without ever tasting it (intentionally or unintentionally... I'd remember). Which puts smell one-up on taste in my book.
posted by oneswellfoop at 1:10 PM on November 11, 2015 [1 favorite]

Aromatic.
posted by JHarris at 1:17 PM on November 11, 2015 [4 favorites]

Likeass.
posted by horsewithnoname at 1:23 PM on November 11, 2015 [3 favorites]

Musty is not a taste.

This is one of the elements of the taste/smell of unagi. Mmm, musty eel.
posted by zippy at 1:59 PM on November 11, 2015

crimson from scarlet from burgundy

Crimson - from Old Spanish cremesin "of or belonging to the kermes" (the shield-louse insects from which a deep red dye was obtained)

scarlet - comes from the French name for "fine cloth", probably of Middle Eastern origin

burgundy - literally named after the color of the wine, FFS.

People who train their noses (some baristas, wine tasters, etc) have a wider smell vocabulary than those of us who don't rely on our noses for a living.
posted by muddgirl at 2:03 PM on November 11, 2015 [2 favorites]

I wish we could absorb some more smell words into English, it's so frustrating just being effectively mute when it comes to describing a scent. I wonder if most of us simply don't encounter enough of a variety of vivid smells en masse to settle on a consensus vocabulary though, apart from in specific arenas like wine tasting. It seems like you need to have multiple different items that you can then pick out a shared smell component from in order to distinguish it.
posted by lucidium at 2:05 PM on November 11, 2015

The Callery Pear tree crosses its fingers.
posted by queensissy at 2:54 PM on November 11, 2015 [1 favorite]

Petrichor.
posted by Grangousier at 3:18 PM on November 11, 2015 [3 favorites]

Perfumey, petrichor (petrichorous). Redolent was once a word used solely to describe smell, but it's been coopted. Odiferous.

More than three, for sure.
posted by ten pounds of inedita at 3:55 PM on November 11, 2015

What? No "fug?"
posted by dr. boludo at 4:11 PM on November 11, 2015

In any case, they've omitted "smelly" and "odoriferous". Also "stank-ass".
posted by darksasami at 4:15 PM on November 11, 2015

"Pong".
posted by sneebler at 4:36 PM on November 11, 2015

"Reek"
posted by valetta at 4:41 PM on November 11, 2015 [1 favorite]

My personal best so far is "miasmic".
posted by howfar at 4:57 PM on November 11, 2015

David Letterman, on the subject of skunk spray: "It's not necessarily the worst smell you've ever smelled, but it is the most smell you've ever smelled."
posted by Greg_Ace at 4:57 PM on November 11, 2015 [11 favorites]

Scots (possibly a dialect of English or a parallel Anglic language, depending on your point of view) has "minging" (rhymes with singing). This has permeated into English, but has taken on a more general meaning in doing so, and typically means "generally distasteful". This change might actually be a useful data point in this discussion.
posted by howfar at 5:03 PM on November 11, 2015 [1 favorite]

I agree that the article has shortcomings, but I was rather taken with its point that English has a poor selection of smell words. I texted a friend to think of three adjectives that describe the unmistakeable look of a banana, and he replied instantly. Then I texted him to think of three adjectives that describe the unmistakable smell of a banana. There was a long pause, then, "Banana-y.”

Sommeliers and parfumers may have a rich vocabulary of smell words, but it's odd to me that something as visceral as smell is largely indescribable for most people (myself included).

In taking with my brother about this, we realized that dogs probably have a rich smell vocabulary, if only they could teach us (although we also figure that at least half of the dog smell words probably have to do with butts).

And then we realized that Scooby and Shaggy are probably discussing sandwich and Scooby Snack smells in their special language all the times that we can't understand them.
posted by LEGO Damashii at 5:11 PM on November 11, 2015 [1 favorite]

Bananas have a very strong, very distinct, single note smell. Saying something smells like a banana is very descriptive.
posted by aspo at 6:00 PM on November 11, 2015

And the smell of banana is mostly from isoamyl acetate.
posted by sneebler at 6:14 PM on November 11, 2015

Whiffy
posted by unliteral at 6:43 PM on November 11, 2015

If this is interesting to you and you haven't done so already, go read Aatish Bhatia's awesome The Crayolifa-cation of the World (and Part II).
posted by Joseph Gurl at 6:59 PM on November 11, 2015 [3 favorites]

^one great piece. I, too also recommend this read.
posted by clavdivs at 7:37 PM on November 11, 2015 [1 favorite]

ObligatoryM&W
posted by Sys Rq at 8:52 PM on November 11, 2015

The Callery Pear tree crosses its fingers.

BotanicallyInaccurateM&W
posted by Sys Rq at 9:02 PM on November 11, 2015

...we realized that dogs probably have a rich smell vocabulary, ...

Since dogs have poor eyesight and rely much more on their noses, I think it more likely that their olfactory vocabulary would be the names of the things they smell, rather than the smells. Sort of like how we look at something and name the thing, not a reflected-light perception of it.
posted by Kirth Gerson at 4:28 AM on November 12, 2015

Why don't you go into your bathroom, take out your cologne/perfume and spray it. Describe it.

Wine-dark
posted by iotic at 5:05 AM on November 12, 2015 [2 favorites]

I think a lot of this discussion is kind of missing the point. You may quibble with the exact etymology of words, but there is in fact something different about the way we describe smells. Abstractions for our other senses come much more easily to mind. While english color words may have etymologies from analogies (yellow / the color of gold), when I say "yellow" you picture it as an abstract concept. Likewise "loud". To describe how something looks, I can build up these abstractions without resorting to analogy and you can understand me. The sun is small, bright, high, and yellow. But to describe a smell, analogy is the only way forward.
posted by Nothing at 7:55 AM on November 12, 2015 [3 favorites]

Well, isn't the whole point of olfaction to detect and track smelly things? I smell a bear, let's get out of here; I smell bacon, let's find it and eat it. So, yeah, most smell words are going to relate to the source, because there's not much reason to discuss smells except to answer the question, "What's that smell?" What would be the point of a lot of words for smells qua smells? What problem would that solve?
posted by Sys Rq at 8:33 AM on November 12, 2015

To describe how something looks, I can build up these abstractions without resorting to analogy and you can understand me. The sun is small, bright, high, and yellow. But to describe a smell, analogy is the only way forward.

I think the issue is considerably more complex than this for a number of reasons. Firstly because I am pretty convinced by the viewpoint that language, by its very nature, functions on metaphor and analogy and all that fun stuff. But more importantly, while I think that it is significant that we have a limited number of specific smell words, I'm not sure how significant it is, and whether it is really a qualitative rather than quantitative difference.

To use your example, while I possibly can't usefully say that a smell is "yellow", I can tell you that it is small, high and bright, and impart useful information about it*. Can I impart as much information about it as those words do about the sun? I don't know; I guess we could carry out research. You'd maybe need to get people to describe abstract shapes and lab-devised scents, using a limited range of preselected words, and then see how well other people could identify the descriptions.

In short, I think that there may be certain assumptions being made, here, about the underpinnings of language which could benefit from empirical investigation to unpick.

*when I worked in a coffee shop, I remember selling a coffee blend called "Bright Note", which was an excellent description of its aroma.
posted by howfar at 11:53 AM on November 12, 2015

Interesting acronym in the article: WEIRD: "By that, he means people from western, educated, industrial, rich, and democratic countries—the ones who make up almost all of psychological research."
posted by larrybob at 12:04 PM on November 12, 2015 [1 favorite]

And make up almost none of anthropological research. Interestingly in light of his next comment - "Anthropologists have been saying that we should do this for years but psychologists mostly ignore this advice". Maybe we shouldn't treat any culture as "weird".
posted by iotic at 2:40 PM on November 12, 2015

Three words in English for smell?

Utter tosh. Pish and tosh and bollocks.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 7:50 PM on November 12, 2015