"Freedom of stench"

[Joel S. Berson]

At 9/3/2009 02:14 PM, Bill Palmer wrote:
>Interesting side note...from my recall of Anglo-Saxon,of about 45 years ago,
>"stench" (written then, I think as "stenc") meant any kind of smell or odor,
>not just an unpleasant one.

Did you mean of 945 years ago?  :-)  The OED has "{dag}1. An odour, a
smell (pleasant or unpleasant); also, the sense of smell. OE. only
(very common)." with the most recent citation c1000.  After that, its
senses are all foul.

Joel

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