the.com/stink
A smell so confident it refuses to leave the room without a fight.
means To give off a strong, unpleasant smell — or, more loosely, to be of noticeably bad quality.
from Stink descends from Old English 'stincan,' which originally meant simply 'to smell' (good or bad) before narrowing to its present unpleasant focus. It shares deep Germanic roots with words like Dutch 'stinken' and German 'stinken,' and is related to 'stench.' The bad-smell-only meaning solidified over time, while the older, neutral sense of 'to emit an odor' faded from English, leaving stink to carry the stigma alone.
- molecular proof
- small volatile molecules travel farthest, hence sulfur always wins
- evolutionary hack
- disgust evolved to keep you away from rot and disease
- nose fatigue
- your own stink vanishes to you within minutes
- slang shift
- making a stink means complaining loudly, not smelling bad