Kant said that “smell does not allow itself to be described, but only compared through similarity with another sense.” The English language confirms his view with just three dedicated smell words: stinky, fragrant, and musty. Everything else is a synonym (aromatic, foul), a very loose metaphor (decadent, unctuous), a loan from another sense (sweet, spicy), or the name of a source (rose, lemon). Of the five Aristotelian senses, four have vast and specific lexicons. Smell, as Diane Ackerman wrote, “is the one without words.”
