| 单词 | odorous |
| 例句 | odorous adjective •the dogs have rolled in something quite odorous:smelly, foul-smelling, malodorous, pungent, acrid, evil-smelling, stinking, reeking, fetid, rank | informal stinky | Brit. informal minging, pongy | literary miasmic, miasmal, noisome, mephitic | rare olid.USAGE odorous, odoriferous, malodorous In practice, odorous (= having a pronounced odor) is neutral in connotation ( an odorous bouquet | an odorous locker room). Although, in A Dictionary of Contemporary American Usage (1957), the Evanses insisted that odorous be “strictly confined to pleasant fragrances”, today it is used with a negative sense about twice as often as a positive one. Malodorous carries even stronger negative connotations ( a malodorous bathroom). Odoriferous, a frequently misused term, has historically had positive connotations in the sense “fragrant” ( odoriferous rose gardens). It shouldn't be used in reference to foul odors—e.g.: “The only thing that gave him trouble was finding a toad; the rest of the stuff, though mostly nasty and odoriferous [read odorous or malodorous ], was obtained with little difficulty.” (Theodore R. Cogswell, “The Wall Around the World” (1953), in The Mammoth Book of Fantasy, Mike Ashley ed.; 2001.) Odiferous is an erroneous shortening of odoriferous, and it's often misused for odorous or malodorous. Only someone familiar with garlic plants knows whether the odor in the following example is nice or foul (probably the latter): “They are underplanted with useful plants ranging from fragrant peppermint to odiferous [read malodorous, odorous, or, if pleasant-smelling, odoriferous ] garlic chives.” ( Boston Herald; Aug. 3, 1997.) Just as odious (= offensive) is sometimes misused to describe a foul smell, so odoriferous is sometimes misused to mean “corrupt” or at least “suspicious”—e.g.: “There does seem to be something odoriferous underfoot.” ( Orlando Sentinel Tribune; Dec. 29, 2002.) Unfortunately, the use is common enough that at least one dictionary ( Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, 11th ed.; 2003) lists “morally offensive” as an alternative definition of odoriferous. In one sense that's understandable, because corruption and bad smells have always been associated (the usage passes the sniff test). But in a larger sense it's unfortunate, since we can't clearly distinguish all the odor words we already have—and it just continues the degeneration of the word's connotations.Usage notes show additional guidance on finer points of English usage. |
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