smell

Pronunciation

• IPA: /smel/^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English smellen, smullen, smillen,^[2][3][4] not found in Old English.^[2][5] It is perhaps related to Middle Dutch smölen and Low German smelen “to smoulder”,^[2][5][3] compare the link between smoke and smell in reek.^[5] The OED holds it to be of Old English origin but unrecorded and without cognates,^[2] and Hoad, Word Origins and the NODE call its origin unknown.^[4][6][7] It is related to smolder.^[2][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

To perceive by the nose: about 1175 in the OED and Barnhart.^[8][5] The noun, the property of things that affects the nose, is from before 1175 in the OED.^[8]

Semantic evolution

The Old English words were stincan and stenċ, the sources of stink and stench,^[6][2] and smell took over their neutral sense.^[4] Smell came to mean a bad smell, a stench, by the late 14th century, and to perceive as if by smell, to detect, then too.^[2][8] To smell a rat, to be suspicious, is from the 1540s.^[2] Smelling salts are from 1840, in Dickens's Old Curiosity Shop,^[5] and smelly is from 1826.^[5] Wake up and smell the coffee and stop and smell the roses are 20th-century American expressions.^[6]

Timeline

• c. 1175 – to perceive by smell; an odour.^[8][5]
• c. 1380 – to detect as if by smell.^[8]
• late 14th century – to stink.^[2]
• 1540s – smell a rat.^[2]
• 1826 – smelly.^[5]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. The quality of something that is noticed by the nose; an odour.
2. An unpleasant odour; a stink.
3. The ability to notice odours.
4. An act of smelling; a sniff.

Verb

1. To notice or recognize something by its odour.
2. To have a particular odour, or an unpleasant one.
3. To sense or suspect something: smell danger.

Word family

• smeller
• smellable
• smell-less
• smelly
• outsmell
• unsmelled
• smelling bottle

Related words

• smolder
• reek
• stench
• stink

Usage notes

The past tense and participle are smelled or smelt.^[1][9]

References

1. ^ a b Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
6. ^ a b c Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ Pearsall, Judy, ed. (1998), The New Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b c d e Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins