"Freedom of stench"

[Alison Murie]

On Sep 3, 2009, at 3:17 PM, Joel S. Berson wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET>
> Subject:      Re: "Freedom of stench"
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>
> 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
>
~~~~~~~~~
Dr. Johnson is supposed to have said "I smell, sir. You stink." Fred
probably knows better.
AM

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