Smell

Smell - (Webster's 1828 Dictionary)

SMELL, v.t. pret and pp. smelled, smelt. [I have not found this word in any other language.] TO perceive by the nose, or by the olfactory nerves; to have a sensation excited in certain organs of the nose by particular qualities of a body, which are transmitted in fine particles, often form a distance; as, to smell a rose; to smell perfumes.

TO SMELL OUT, is a low phrase signifying to find out by sagacity.

TO SMELL A RAT, is a low phrase signifying to suspect strongly.

SMELL, v.i.

1. To affect the olfactory nerves; to have an odor or particualr scent; followed by of; as to smell of smoke; to smell of musk.

2. To have a particular tincuture or smack or any quality; as, a report smells of calumny. [Not elegant.]

3. To practice smelling. Exo 30.

4. To exercise sagacity.

SMELL, n.

1. The sense of faculty by which through the instrumentally of the olfactory nerves; or the faculty of perceiving by the organs of the nose; one of the five senses. In some species of beasts, the smell is remark able acute, particularly in the canine species.

2. Scent; odor; the quality of bodies which affects the olfactory organs; as the smell of mint; the smell of geranium. The sweetest smell in the air is that of the white double violet.

smel (Hebrew and Aramaic reach, as noun, "savor," "scent"; ruach, as verb, literally, "to breathe," "to inhale," thence "to smell"; osme, the "smell," "savor," euodia, "sweet smell" "fragrance" osphresis "the sense of smell"; verb osphrainomai): And he came near, and kissed him: and he smelled (way-yarach) the smell (reach) of his raiment, and blessed him, and said, See, the smell (reach) of my son is as the smell (reach) of a field which Yahweh hath blessed" (Ge 27:27). Idols are described as "gods, the work of men's hands, wood and stone, which neither see, nor hear, nor eat, nor smell" (De 4:28). Acceptable sacrifices and pious conduct are called a "sweet smell" or "savor" (Ex 29:18; Eph 5:2; Php 4:18) well-pleasing to God. The godless life, which dishonors God, is hateful to Him: "I will not smell the savor of your sweet odors" (Le 26:31). The phrase, "being in bad odor with a person," can be traced to Biblical language: "Ye have made our savor to be abhorred in the eyes of Pharaoh, and in the eyes of his servants" (Ex 5:21). Thus "smell" is occasionally equivalent with "quality," "character": "His (Moab's) taste remaineth in him, and his scent is not changed" (Jer 48:11). Character or quality is the most infallible test, the most manifest advertisement of a thing or a person; thus we find the following very instructive passage: "(God) maketh manifest through us the savor (osme) of his knowledge in every place. For we are a sweet savor (euodia) of Christ unto God, in (better: "among") them that are saved, and in (better: "among") them that perish; to the one a savor (osme) from death unto death; to the other a savor (osme) from life unto life" (2Co 2:14-16). See TRIUMPH. In the passage Isa 3:24, the King James Version "sweet smell" (besem, "balsam plant") has been changed to "sweet spices" in the Revised Version (British and American).

H. L. E. Luering