More Unusual Words...Mostly on Smells

A few essays back I focused on words ending in "ion" which describe various parts of the body. Here I will focus on one of the senses, that of smell, and provide some words that evoke that sense. The words that interest me are petrichor, nidorosity, saphrophagous/saprostomous, bromidrosis and jumentous. Not all of these will make it in the list of America's "best-loved" words; several, however, invite closer consideration.

1. Nidorosity has to do with a belching (eructation) that brings forth an unpleasant taste or odor. Samuel Johnson, in his 1755 dictionary, defined it as "eructation with the taste of undigested roast meat." "The cure of this Nidorosity, is..by Vomiting and Purging." I wonder how Johnson got close enough to determine if it was the meat, rather than the onions, for example, which brought forth the belch. The underlying word is nidor, derived from the Latin of the same name and meaning a rich strong smell generally from food or things burnt. Thus a nidor is also "the smell given off by animal substances, esp. of a fatty or greasy nature." From 1746: "A Nidor or Stink, peculiar to Animal Substances in a State of Putrefaction." A particularly memorable use of the term is from Sydney Smith's Works early in the 19th century: "No living nostril has scented the nidor of a human creature roasted for faith." I guess by that time Europe was finished burning people at the stake...

The adjective, nidorous, actually occurs fairly frequently, often in conjunction with the word "smells" or "odor" or "flavor" or "scent." One might say that a mephitic or nidorous odor emanates from the brimstone of hell. You would think that Fundamentalists and others believing in a literal hell would take the time to learn words that emphasize how scary a place it is, but I think you would search Fundamentalist literature, such as it is, in vain for such a word.

2. Petrichor gives us a completely different type of odor, and one that evoked in me a certain song from my Evangelical days. First, let's play it straight. It is a term coined in 1964 by Bear and Thomas in an article in Nature to describe a pleasant and distinctive smell frequently accompanying the first rain after a long period of warm, dry weather in certain regions. Here is the explanation for the name:

"The diverse nature of the host materials has led us to propose the name 'petrichor' for this apparently unique odor which can be regarded as an 'ichor' or 'tenuous essence' derived from rock or stone (hence the petr...)."

More specifically, as this article maintains, the smell derives from an oil exuded by certain plants during dry periods, where it is then adsorbed (i.e., it stays on the surface) by clay-based soils and rocks. During rain, the oil is released into the air along with another compound, geosmin, producing a distinct scent. Thus, the smell of rain falling on dry ground is petrichor. The Christian ditty? I am almost embarrassed to repeat it here. "Jesus, Jesus, Jesus/ There's just something about that name./ Master, Savior, Jesus/ Like the fragrance after the rain." I suppose it would stymie the singers if one wanted the last line to read, "Like petrichor." Indeed, it really would wreck the rhythm of the whole thing..

3. Saprophagous was not the word in the dictionary of unusual words, but it is a good word, and it means "feeding on decaying/putrid matter." The Greek sapros means "rotten." The word which appeared is saprostomous, which would literally mean "rotten mouth" but means "extremely bad breath." "Consumption of a steady diet of garlic gave him a permanently saprostomous air." There are many words in the Century beginning with sapro, such as sapremia, a condition of blood-poisoning, to saprogenic, which means "producing of decay or putrefacation," to the Saproharpages, an obsolete term (present in the Century) to describe a group of birds of prey. The Greek word harpax means "robber." Then we have the Sapromyza, derived from something that "sucks" (myzein) rotten things, and referring specifically to a common group of reddish-yellow or dull-black flies found commonly around outhouses. I wondered what they were last time I was availing myself of the experience!

4. Bromidrosis. If we thought we had exhausted the Greek vocabulary for smell by the word sapron ("rotten"), we are mistaken. Actually bromos means "stink" or "smell." The second part of the word comes from hidrosis, which means "sweat." Thus, someone suffering from bromidrosis has a "functional disorder of the sweat glands characterized by more or less sweating and an offensive odor." But we can take bromos a little further. The basic "brom"-word in English is bromine, one of the non-metallic elements discovered by Balard in 1826. The OED describes it as follows: "Obtained as a dark reddish-black heavy liquid, with a strong irritating smell (hence its name), and highly poisonous." A bromide is a primary compound of bromine with an element or organic radical. But when this combination has taken place, lost is the sense of its strong smell; the focus is on its sedative effect. Hence, a bromide can calm you down... To add to the confusion, to an extent, we have the Greek word broma, meaning "food." I wonder if the words broma and bromos are linked through the idea of the odors that food gives off... In any case, bromatology is the study of food or a discourse or treatise on food. Bromography means the same thing.

5. Lest you think I get nothing done because I introduce so few words in each essay, let's close with one more--jumentous. The definition is surprisingly unhelpful: "resembling that of a horse, said of urine." Or, from Sydney's Lexicon of the late 19th century we have it defined as "a term applied to urine which is high colored, strong smelling (there is our theme!), and turbid, like that of the horse." Underlying the term is jument, a contraction of jugimentum, the "yoke-beast." The jument, therefore is a beast of burden or a beast in general. I don't believe I will ever see this word at work...but we at least have it here.

One more essay ought to conclude this treatment.

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