Anosmia

Use this forum to discuss past Good Words.
User avatar
Dr. Goodword
Site Admin
Posts: 7417
Joined: Wed Feb 02, 2005 9:28 am
Location: Lewisburg, PA
Contact:

Anosmia

Postby Dr. Goodword » Sun Sep 26, 2021 8:58 pm

• anosmia •


Pronunciation: ê-nahz-mi-ê • Hear it!

Part of Speech: Noun, mass

Meaning: 1. Loss or impairment of the sense of smell, caused by head injury, infection, or ageing. 2. Smell blindness, the lack of olfactory organs, found in some animals.

Notes: Today's Good Word describes a lingering symptom of COVID-19, though other diseases and ageing are also causes. It comes with two adjectives, anosmic and anosmatic. Ageusia refers to the loss of the sense of taste.

In Play: This is not a word to play with since the sense of smell plays a major role in taste. The gustatory cells sense only four or five tastes: sweetness, saltiness, sourness, bitterness (and umami?). The rest of taste is supplied by the olfactory glands. Some people believe that pregnancy is a cure for anosmia. It isn't. Olfactory training, oral steroids, and nasal saline lavage are better treatments for anosmia.

Word History: Today we have another 'garden path' word. This time the spelling ganged up with meaning to lead us astray. We see nos(e) in the word and since the meaning points to smell, we are convinced the two are related. They aren't. This word breaks down into Greek an- "no(t)" + osme "odor, smell" + -ia, a noun suffix. Osme comes from the verb ozein "to smell, emit odor". Greek inherited this word from PIE hed-/hod- "(to) smell". In early Greek osme was odme. Latin dropped the H to arrive at odor, but switched the D for L to derive its verb, olere "to smell of". In Armenian we find it as hot "odor, smell", Latvian ost "to smell", and Lithuanian uosti "to smell, sniff". Swedish os "smell, odor" belongs to this group, too. but we find (An e-bow is due our old friend, Lew Jury, for rescuing this lovely garden path Good Word from the field of medicine.)
• The Good Dr. Goodword

User avatar
Slava
Great Grand Panjandrum
Posts: 8040
Joined: Thu Sep 28, 2006 9:31 am
Location: Finger Lakes, NY

Re: Anosmia

Postby Slava » Wed Jun 28, 2023 9:59 am

I'd posit that this isn't really a 'garden-path' word. It may not literally mean 'not possessed of a nose', but let's face it, if your nose is bent out of shape and doesn't work, you might just as well not have one, no?

Esthetic appearance aside, that is. :)
Life is like playing chess with chessmen who each have thoughts and feelings and motives of their own.

bnjtokyo
Lexiterian
Posts: 384
Joined: Thu Jul 07, 2016 7:16 pm

Re: Anosmia

Postby bnjtokyo » Wed Jun 28, 2023 6:53 pm

I believe something is missing in the two or three sentences in this essay. The last portion of "Word History" reads

"Swedish os "smell, odor" belongs to this group, too. but we find (An e-bow is due our old friend, Lew Jury, for rescuing this lovely garden path Good Word from the field of medicine.)"

1) Shouldn't the period after "too" and before "but" be a comma?
2) If the answer to 1) is "Yes" then isn't "but we find" the beginning of a phrase in coordination with the phrase beginning with "Swedish"?
3) Then isn't the predicate of the coordinated clause beginning "but we find" missing?

Or have I been led down a garden path and gotten lost?

User avatar
Dr. Goodword
Site Admin
Posts: 7417
Joined: Wed Feb 02, 2005 9:28 am
Location: Lewisburg, PA
Contact:

Re: Anosmia

Postby Dr. Goodword » Wed Jun 28, 2023 10:18 pm

"but we find" should have been deleted. My deepest apologies. The original Good Word has been fixed in the dictionary and archive.
• The Good Dr. Goodword


Return to “Good Word Discussion”

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: Ahrefs [Bot], Bing [Bot], Google [Bot], Semrush [Bot] and 41 guests