How do we describe smells?

Hello, this is 6 Minute English from BBC Learning English. I'm Neil.

And I'm Georgie. In English, there are many ways to describe smells. Poet Michael Rosen wanted to find words describing bad smells, and asked listeners of his BBC Radio 4 programme Word of Mouth for some suggestions.

Fusty, reeking, toiking, honking, humming, funky…

Smells are everywhere, whether they're bad smells like rotten eggs and sweaty feet, or pleasant ones like lavender and freshly baked bread. What smells do you especially like or dislike, Georgie?

Well, I really enjoy the smell of leather, but something I really love is the smell of rain, which has a name. Do you know it, Neil?

Erm, I don't think I do actually.

It's called petrichor. It's that smell of the ground just after it's rained.

Mmm.

Neil, what about you? Which smells do you like?

Well, I don't think you can beat the smell of a freshly opened packet of ground coffee.

Ooh, that's a good one. In this episode, we'll be learning the language of smells using some useful new words and phrases. And remember, you can find all the

But first, I have a question for you, Georgie. One smell many people love is the smell of old books and the sentimental feeling it gives them for second-hand bookshops. In fact, there's even a word for it, but what is it? Is it: a) vellichor, b) petrichor, or c) nidor?

Well, we already know that petrichor is the smell of the ground after rain. I'm going to go with a) vellichor.

Well, we'll find out at the end of the programme. Listening to Michael Rosen's list – funky, reeking, humming and the rest – you might think English is good at describing smells, but in fact, all those words really mean is bad smelling.

In English, we often describe smells by comparing them to other objects. For example, something nice might smell like a rose, while something bad might smell like rotten eggs, but there are few words to describe the actual smell itself.

Oxford University psychologist Asifa Majid has researched the subject of smell extensively. Here, she tells Michael Rosen a little of what she's found out on BBC Radio 4 programme Word of Mouth.

So, if we think about things like stinky or fragrant, they're definitely telling us that something is good or bad. But unlike colour terms, it doesn't really seem to be about the object it's describing. It seems to be a subjective thing. I could say, "Oh this perfume you think is really fragrant, I think is stinky," and both can be true.

Describing smell is not like describing other senses. I might think a perfume is stinky, an adjective meaning bad smelling, while Neil might find the same perfume fragrant, meaning pleasant smelling. Both can be true. The point is that neither stinky nor fragrant say anything specific about the perfume's actual smell.

With our sense of taste, it's different. Words like spicy, sweet or salty create a common idea that we can all agree on, but that's not the case for smells. Asifa thinks this is because, unlike tastes and colours, smell words are subjective – they're based on personal opinions and feelings rather than objective truth.

This might explain why our attitude to talking about smells is so different. Here's Asifa again, sharing some examples of how we talk about smells with BBC Radio 4.

So, if we compare how often people talk about visual things, or auditory things, or tastes or smells, what we find is we talk a lot about what we see and very rarely about what we smell. Young children in the UK are often interested in the sense of smell and they'll remark on it, and the parent will shut it down. They'll say, "That's disgusting! Put it down."

Asifa's research shows that, here in the UK at least, people talk about visual or auditory things much more than they talk about smells. The adjective visual means related to seeing, and auditory means related to hearing. The adjective for things related to smelling is olfactory.

Maybe this is because of how we're raised by our parents. When children start talking about smells, especially unpleasant ones, parents often react by shutting the conversation down. The phrase to shut something down means to stop it.

Along with other European languages, English doesn't have much vocabulary dedicated to the different qualities of actual smells. There are many ways of talking about smells, especially unpleasant ones, but only a few words which describe actual smells themselves. A good example of a word which does this is musty – a damp, stale smell you might find in an old bookshop. And Neil, that reminds me of your question.

That's right. I asked you what the word is, which means the smell of old books.

I said it was vellichor.

Well, Georgie, you are absolutely right.

Yay!

Petrichor, as you said earlier, is the smell of the earth after rain. And nidor is the smell of cooking meat and fat. OK. It's time for a recap of the vocabulary we've learned. The adjective stinky means foul smelling, while the adjective fragrant means pleasant smelling.

Subjective things are based on your own personal opinions and feelings rather than objective facts.

The adjective visual describes things related to seeing, while auditory means related to hearing. Things related to smelling are called olfactory.

And finally, the phrasal verb to shut something down means to stop it. Once again, our six minutes are up, but there's still time to head over to our website, we've discussed. See you again soon! But for now, it's goodbye.

Goodbye!