lox (smoked salmon) from 1668??

[Benjamin Zimmer]

On 8/6/06, Joel S. Berson <Berson at att.net> wrote:
>
> At 8/6/2006 01:30 AM, Doug Wilson wrote:
> >What does the extended context call for? Would one expect that "lox" refers
> >to something with a foul odor along the lines of feces?
> >
> >Would one expect locks = wool to have a foul odor?
>
> I haven't smelled the underside of a sheep in a long time.
>
> (More seriously, though, I wonder what belly wool smells like after
> shearing but before washing.  And some people say they don't eat lamp
> because it has an unpleasant odor.  Perhaps some also are repelled by
> the odor of the live animal.)

Not just belly wool, but wool in general may have been associated with
foul odor in the late 17th - early 18th centuries, since it was rarely
washed when used for clothing (unlike later cotton textiles). From
_Daily Life in 18th-Century England_ by Kirstin Olsen (p. 268):

"Washing clothes was difficult early in the century, before cheap and
washable cotton replaced wool as the dominant fabric. In Samuel
Johnson's youth, shirts were changed once a week. The rich could
afford to mask their odor with perfumes; the poor had to get used to
the smell or suffer."


--Ben Zimmer

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