Words On Smell

ACID, ANOSMI, AROMATICA
BITTER
CITY SMELLS, CORRUPTION, COUNTRY SMELLS
EFFLUVIOUS, EMANATIONS, EXHALATIONS, EXCRETA
DECAY, DEODORIZATION, DELICATE NOSE, DISINFECTION
FERMENT, FETID MIRE, FOUL AIR
HEAVY SCENTS, HUMAN SWAMP
INDIVIDUAL ATMOSPHERE, INFECTION
MALODOROUS, MEPHITIC, MIASMA
NOXIOUS
ODORIFEROUS, ODOR STATUS, OLFACTORY FATIGUE, OSPHRESIOLOGY
PERSPIRATION, POIGNANT, PONG, POWERFUL SCENT, PRIVATE SMELLS, PUBLIC SMELLS, PUNGENT, PUTREFACTION
RANCID, REDOLENT, REEKING, REFUSE
SCENT, SEPTIC TANK, SHARP, SOUR, STAGNATION, STENCH, STENCHES OF THE EARTH, STEEPING, STINGING, STINK, STRONG SCENTS, SWEAT, SYSTEM OF PERCEPTIONS
THE BASEMENT ODOR
VAPOUR, VILE, VIRULENT
WALKING DUNGHILLS, WHIFF

What is it about a stink? If you call it by any other name would it still smell as vile?

With such a limited vocabulary to know what a smell is, its type and where to expect it; it is essential to have categories that go beyond the banal sweet or sour. But for all the various categories from kitchen smells to laundry scents, bathroom stench, bedroom aromas and the many city and country stinks they fit neatly within two: public smells and private smells!

As an individual you have a personal atmosphere made up of scents that permeate your clothing, hair, skin and breath. Your dwellings, the private space of your home have their own atmospheres that permeate the furniture, surfaces, walls and flooring. These scents mix with and add to your own personal smell. Public spaces too have their own atmosphere and when people gather there their personal atmospheres mingle and latch onto each other creating a collective atmosphere, a miasma that lingers in the air.

The supposed volume of necessary fresh air within a confined space per person per hour has been measured to between six and ten cubic meters! But is air ever fresh?  With perfume, oil burners, deodorant, chemical cleaning sprays, fertilisers, weed killers, pesticides and manure wafting in the breeze. How can the confined air be refreshed when there is no fresh air outside and the only fresh air inside is recycled through the purifier after it is brought in from outside by the air conditioner.