Having a strong bad odor or unpleasant smell.
From Old English 'smell' of uncertain origin, possibly from Old Norse. The suffix '-y' makes it an adjective meaning 'having the quality of' smell.
Humans have a terrible sense of smell compared to other animals—dogs have 10,000 times better smell than us—yet 'smelly' is one of the strongest emotional triggers in language, making us recoil from words alone.
Smelly and related olfactory descriptors are disproportionately applied to women (menstruation, hygiene) and racialized bodies in medicalized and colonial discourse, encoding disgust as pseudo-scientific fact.
Specify the actual chemical or sensory property; avoid gendered/racialized disgust framing. Use clinical terms where applicable.
["pungent","strong-scented","with [specific] odor"]
Women's bodies and hygiene have been pathologized through olfactory stigma; reclaiming accuracy in sensory description resists medicalization of normalcy.
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