Did you
know?

noisome
adjective

- offensive to the senses and especially to the sense of smell
- highly obnoxious or objectionable

Merriam-Webster

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ORIGIN

From the late 14th century, noisom, meaning “harmful, noxious”,... from noye, noi “harm, misfortune”, a shortened form of anoi “annoyance+some”.

The meaning “bad-smelling, offensive to the sense of smell” is from the 1570s.

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IT SMELLS FISHY

A number of urban legends feature jilted (sitzengelassen) partners in romantic relationships striking back at their erstwhile (frühere) lovers using nasty revenge schemes,... ideally where the payoff becomes apparent only at a safe remove across time.

One common plan involves the hiding of seafood in a cleverly concealed area to ruin a former partner’s home or car; and resulting in a forced sale at a huge loss due to an ineradicable (unausrottbar) NOISOME smell produced by rotting fish.

Mention of a similar stunt is included in John Steinbeck’s 1945 novel Cannery Row: The character Doc advocates getting revenge on a bank by renting a safe deposit box, depositing a salmon in it, then going away for six months.

In the 1993 film Grumpy Old Men, Walter Matthau hides a fish inside Jack Lemmon’s car, and in the 2003 made-for-TV movie A Tale of Two Wives, the wronged women hide shrimp in the bigamist’s office blinds.

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SYNONYMS (for bad smells)

yukky, whiffy, foetid, obnoxious, odious, reeking, repulsive, gut-wrenching, stinking to high heaven, NOISOME, stenchy, irksome, malodorous, off-color

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ANTONYMS (for nice smells)

ambrosian, aromatic, balmy, flowery, fragrant, heady, honeyed, mellow, perfumed, sweetly perfumed, scented, scent-laden, sweet-scented, musky, woodsy

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SMUGGLE OWAD into a conversation today, say something like:

“Did you see how many OWAD readers wrongly-guessed NOISOME today?”

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HERZLICHEN DANK to all readers helping me keep OWAD alive with single or monthly donations at:

https://donorbox.org/please-become-a-friend-of-owad-3

Paul Smith