Learning English

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Introduction

What is the worst smell in the world? And what is the best smell? Are there any smells that you like, but that your friends or family hate? Smells are all around us all the time, but the English language is often quite general in the way it describes smells, as opposed to other senses like sounds or tastes. But why is this? Neil and Georgie discuss this and teach you some new vocabulary.

This week's question

What is the word for the smell of old books?

a) vellichor
b) petrichor
c) nidor

Listen to the programme to hear the answer.

Vocabulary

stinky (also: reeking, honking, humming, miffy, funky)
(informal) having a bad smell
 
fragrant
having a sweet or pleasant smell
 
subjective
based on your own personal opinions and feelings
 
visual
related to seeing
 
auditory
related to hearing
 
shut (something) down
stop something

TRANSCRIPT

Note: This is not a word-for-word transcript. 

Neil
Hello, this is 6 Minute English from BBC Learning English. I'm Neil.
 
Georgie
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.
 
Michael Rosen
Fusty, reeking, toiking, honking, humming, funky…
 
Neil
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?
 
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?
 
Neil
Erm, I don't think I do actually.
 
Georgie
It's called petrichor. It's that smell of the ground just after it's rained.
 
Neil
Mmm.
 
Georgie
Neil, what about you? Which smells do you like?
 
Neil
Well, I don't think you can beat the smell of a freshly opened packet of ground coffee.
 
Georgie
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 vocabulary plus a quiz and worksheet on our website, bbclearningenglish.com.

Neil
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?
 
Georgie
Well, we already know that petrichor is the smell of the ground after rain. I'm going to go with a) vellichor.
 
Neil
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.
 
Georgie
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.
 
Neil
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.
 
Asifa Majid
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.
 
Georgie
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.
 
Neil
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.
 
Georgie
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.
 
Asifa Majid
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."
 
Georgie
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.
 
Neil
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.
 
Georgie
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.
 
Neil
That's right. I asked you what the word is, which means the smell of old books.
 
Georgie
I said it was vellichor.
 
Neil
Well, Georgie, you are absolutely right.
 
Georgie
Yay!
 
Neil
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.
 
Georgie
Subjective things are based on your own personal opinions and feelings rather than objective facts.
 
Neil
The adjective visual describes things related to seeing, while auditory means related to hearing. Things related to smelling are called olfactory.
 
Georgie
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, bbclearningenglish.com, for a quiz and worksheet containing all the vocabulary we've discussed. See you again soon! But for now, it's goodbye.
 
Neil
Goodbye!

 

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