Why they say I heard the smell. Why spirits listen and not sniff

This is a very interesting topic for me, because it is related to both language and perfumes. Although the Russian language is not my direct specialty (I am not a philologist, but a linguist), I love it very much and really want to tell about my point of view on “listening to aromas”.

I will assume that the use of the word "listen" in relation to fragrances is normal and not a mistake, since we have enough historical data to conclude that our "case" has existed for a long time. language and is commonly used.

Therefore, we cannot deny it or blame it on the illiteracy of certain individuals, on the cunning inventions of marketers and on the vulgar heights of powdered girls from perfumery stores.

A couple of examples:

“It seemed to him that he heard this smell even now. And he remembered how the day before her death she took his strong white hand with her bony blackened hand, looked into his eyes and said:“ Do not judge me, Mitya, if I am not that did ", and tears appeared on the eyes, faded from suffering", - Lev Tolstoy "Resurrection"

What nonsense! It’s me bathing in a resinous extract, ”Bodrostina answered, and, bringing her hand to his face, added:“ Smell, isn't that? - No, I can smell new boards, they are being cut somewhere.

Leskov "At the Knives"

Then I heard (about a miracle!) A bad smell,

It's like a rotten egg has broken

Or the quarantine guard smoked with a brazier

Pushkin (poem 1832)

Well, it goes without saying that all of us perfumers have heard this expression a hundred million times in our lives. In general, the language of perfumemakers is full of sound associations and metaphors.

Our aromas decompose into notes, sound, they are too loud or too quiet. No one is surprised by the descriptions of aromas, such as: "At first, tuberose was the soloist, jasmine echoed, and then amber and patchouli came in, and on this note everything suddenly ended." How much more musical? Truth?

And then there are phrases such as "a cacophony of aromas." We immediately understand what is meant - this is not just a mixture of smells, it is a mixture of aromas that are not friendly with each other, do not combine, annoying, like empty strumming on a musical instrument.

And in all this I see a very interesting moment. I believe that languages ​​are complex dynamical systems because they have the characteristics of complex dynamical systems: multiple diverse agents and interconnections. Consequently, not a single phenomenon, even the most insane at first glance, happens by chance, just like that. And “listening” to fragrances is not an accidental mistake or a short-term fashion.

Now I will try to explain how I see it.

We have senses: sight, hearing, touch, smell, taste, and a sense of balance. We receive the bulk of information through sight, then hearing, touch, smell and taste (to a lesser extent), well, and the balance is generally similar to Pluto in the solar system - practically lost, not quite even a planet. And these our feelings and their role in obtaining information have a strong influence on the formation of language.

Look how many different words we have associated with vision: see, look, look, contemplate, and so on. And how mobile these words are, how easily they form derivatives with new meanings: to discern, peep, see, revise, and so on.

The same is about hearing, albeit to a slightly lesser extent: listening, eavesdropping, and so on.

The most impoverished in epithets we have, of course, is the sense of balance that can only be lost and gained. And it seems that we don't even have verbs related only to this feeling.

Since the receipt of information is associated with the process of collection and processing (roughly speaking), then words related to feelings are displayed in pairs. Best of all, the most active methods of obtaining information “look-see”, “listen-hear” are doing.

And then the difficulties begin. Sense of touch. The word "touch" can mean both to touch and to feel touch. This is a pair of itself, without differentiation on the principle of "receiving-sensing". But here we have other tools: "touch - feel", "touch - feel" and others like them in various combinations.

Smell. Smell. Just like “touch”, “smell” can mean both the process of drawing in air itself, and the process of feeling the aroma, so to speak, the processing of the received data.

And look how clumsy and clumsy these words are, how narrow their range of application is, no scale, no range! It is impossible to "connect" or "smell". We practically do not use them in colloquial speech. They are largely protocol-based.

There is the word "sniff", but it does not have a pair, although it definitely and definitely refers to the action aimed at obtaining information. There are auxiliary instruments - to feel, feel and hear (and where to hear, there and listen). Here a tricky question may arise: why the word "hear" is applied to the organs of smell, but not to the organs of touch? Because we hear at a distance and we can smell aromas at a distance. But to touch - no.

I want to give an example:

He smelled the scent of his home

He heard the scent of his home

He smelled the scent of his home

I don’t know about you, personally to me the first option says that “he” was already inside his home, feeling the aroma

The second option tells me that he is somewhere near the house, but not inside, maybe on the way

And the third option tells me that his house smells bad. Or that "he" is a dog.

And in general, derivatives from the word "sniff" often sound ironic - all these are sniffing, sniffing ... And the process of sniffing itself refers to the physical drawing in of air. This is why cocaine is sniffed rather than inhaled. Sniff - draw in with your nostrils.

But the sense of taste does not have such luxury. Borrowed from the German word "try" and words-auxiliary tools taken from the sense of touch - that's all. Even the related word "eat" has a different meaning.

Note that the basic senses do not need these tools. We don’t feel the paintings in the museum and we don’t feel the music in MP3 format.

Thus, when there is not enough of their own, native graphic means, they are borrowed in neighboring areas. At the same time, borrowings fit well into the environment and ideally reflect all the necessary nuances.

And one more point related to fragrances. As we know, the word "aroma" has several meanings. There is a scent - a synonym for smell, and there is a scent - a synonym for perfume. We cannot smell the smell, we smell or feel the smell (or listen ha-ha-ha), because this is a property, not an object. We can smell its source. And the aroma, which is a bottle of perfume, we can easily smell. And here confusion often arises when a person, roughly speaking, holds a blotter in his hands and "smells" its aroma. Although he can only smell the blotter itself, and the aroma can be inhaled. Or listening, which implies the active involvement of attention and mental work in the process itself. He can smell and feel the fragrance - these words are also appropriate, but they do not appeal to attention, while when choosing perfumes, we carefully listen to their shades, and not just feel in a random way, as we can feel, for example, cold going out onto the balcony.

Well, why am I here, sobbsno thought spread over the tree. Convenience. In addition to poetry, in addition to the associative connection of aromas and music, in addition to the lack of native flexible instruments, the sense of smell has a banal convenience:

Listen to the aroma! What do you hear?

I hear cherries and gladiolus

Smell the aroma! How do you feel / smell / sense?

Here you still have to pick up the words, and the language, each language, strives for simplicity and brevity. By the way, I, for example, would not be very pleased with the question of how I feel from a stranger, even if we are talking about fragrances. It sounds too personal. But this is my private opinion.

Objectively, this question can be perceived in two ways. Or sound too literary-sublime for a regular store. Although, I find fault, this is also possible. But this is not the only way.

Well, one last thing. In recent days, I have heard several times that we cannot listen with our nose, because there are no hearing receptors. By the way, I didn't hear it, but saw it several times, because I read it with my eyes on the screen :)

But we can listen to the voice of the heart or its call, our eyes can speak, and not only eyes, but also posture, and appearance, behavior. Although they have nothing to say: there are no speech organs. And also people vote with their feet and all that ... Feelings are allowed to "walk" back and forth, thrown from one sphere to another. Why? Because the world around us is a source of information, feelings, emotions and thoughts. He speaks to us, and we hear and analyze him. And the formalities, in the form of the presence of receptors, often recede into the background, giving way to linguistic metaphors and colors. Of course, if we are not talking about the text of the medical examination.

I am glad that we always have a choice. We can smell, listen, smell. And no one forces us to use those words that we do not like. And this is great! And, most importantly, I wish you all endless perfumery joys and a lot of space for your sense of smell!

The perfume composition does not make a sound. This is fine?

Since the days of the Roman poet and philosopher Lucretius Cara, many theories have been proposed about the nature of smell. All of them can be divided into two groups: contact and wave. Biochemist, perfume critic and author of The Perfume Guide, Luca Turin is one of the main proponents of the wave theory. According to her, the aroma is determined by the frequencies of vibrations of interatomic bonds in molecules perceived by the olfactory organs. But neither she nor any of the other serious theories suggests comparing smell to sound. However, identifying scent with music is common practice, and the perception of perfume is equated with listening. Why?

The main reason is the insufficient vocabulary for describing smells, the secondary one is the romanticization of the art of perfumery. The terms “note” and “chord” have become firmly established in the perfumery lexicon. They were first proposed by the English perfumer and chemist George Wilson Septimus Piesse in the middle of the 19th century. In his book "The Art of Perfumery" (1857), he matches the perfume ingredients known to him and the notes of the sound scale. It is enough to have basic knowledge of music to understand: Piesse's work looks, at least, controversial. Modern adherents of “listening” to perfumes give the following logical (as it seems to them) chain: a fragrance, like music, consists of notes, they merge into chords, and even a perfumer's workplace is called an organ behind which he creates his “melody”. This may seem like a nice comparison, but it has nothing to do with reality. We know of five basic senses: sight (the sensitive organ - eyes), hearing (ears), smell (nose), touch (skin), and taste (tongue). Smells are perceived by the olfactory apparatus, consisting of the olfactory epithelium in the superior turbinate, the vomeronasal nerve, the terminal nerve, and the accessory olfactory bulb in the forebrain, and are interpreted by the limbic system of the brain. Not a word about the ears. In addition, smell is a collection of many chemical compounds that are not capable of making sounds. The identification of smell with music, as well as with visual images, tactile and taste sensations, is the result of synesthetic perception, individual in each case. And, as already mentioned, when describing our own impressions of the smell, we resort to using dictionaries from other systems of perception, because the olfactory dictionary is extremely scarce.

What do they do with the smell if they don't listen? The obvious answer to this question is “feel”, “feel”, “perceive”. These are neutral words, but they are best suited to the process of smelling. Nobody prohibits and will not be able to prohibit describing scents and smells with any associations and epithets, but the use of the word "listen" in this context is a gross logical mistake. Journalists and consultants in perfume shops are the main distributors. The only question on this topic, to which we still have no answer - how is the word "sniff" worse than the word "listen"? In English, the word “smell” corresponds to the process of smell, in rare cases “feel” and never “hear”. What negative connotations does the word "sniff" have in the Russian language that, being the only true one that determines the process of smelling, it was replaced by another verb that did not correspond to it in meaning and logic?

Have a question? Ask it in the comments below, and we will definitely answer in Aromo libraries

You've probably noticed that in perfume stores, consultants usually offer customers not to smell, but to listen to this or that fragrance. Strange, you thought. “Everyone knows that a person picks up odors with his nose, not his ears. Then why do they say that they listen to scents and not smell them? Where does this strange terminology come from? " Well, let's figure it out.

Why do they say "listen" to the aroma, and not "smell"

Of course, “listening to the scent” is a figurative expression. You don't have to hold a perfume bottle to your ear to hear something. And yet, where did it come from?
It's all about the associativity of our thinking.

For example, we often draw parallels between smell and taste. When describing the taste of a vintage wine, we are most likely talking about its amazing bouquet.

And we associate many aromatic plants with a certain taste, as we often use them as seasonings.

Some scientists have also tried to draw an analogy between color and smell.

They suggested that the seven primary colors of the spectrum could correspond to seven musical notes.

Scientists managed to draw semantic parallels between smell and sound. A great contribution to this area was made by the English perfumer Piesse, who was the first to introduce the concept of a harmonious and disharmonious combination of smells into everyday life and arranged the main aromatic extracts in sonic rows.

Since then, in perfumery, the question of listening to smells or smelling them has disappeared by itself. And the perfumers themselves began to create their aromatic masterpieces according to the principle of a piece of music: from notes and chords.

There are practically 3 chords:

Top chord or top notes
middle chord or heart notes
and the bottom chord or base notes

Together they form an aroma, which, like a musical symphony, is not a static (frozen) sound, but plays and develops in time.

Now do you understand why they say that the scent should be listened to? Agree, in this context, the word "sniff" already sounds somehow strange 🙂

However, there is one small but.

They listen to the scents, but the perfume still sniffs

Some consultants in stores are so carried away that they suggest that customers listen to perfume instead of scent. Which is, strictly speaking, wrong.

Since the source of the odor (in this case, a scent liquid, a bottle of perfume, or a scent blotter) we still smell.
But we are already listening to the aroma itself.

This linguistic subtlety is best reflected by the phrase “smell<духи>, can you hear how it smells<какой аромат>". Do you see the difference?

In general, of course, it doesn't matter how you say - smelling perfume or listening to it - people will understand your message. But something tells us that speaking correctly is important first of all for yourself. And how is it right, you now know 🙂

You must have faced such a strange question more than once: why, after all, spirits "listen" when the aroma is not subject to any sound properties? And why do so many perfumers insist that people "listen" to their scent, and not proceed from the initial ideas? Let's figure it out ...

Smell and hearing

We are so often accustomed to trusting our sensory feelings that sometimes they are able to replace rational thinking for us ... Sometimes, trusting our feelings, we move into the emotional plane, and then our actions become devoid of a rational approach, and even more so, intuitive perception. All these are far from psychological, and I would even say, philosophical questions that we will not discuss in this material. Let us limit ourselves, for starters, to structural problems of smell and hearing.

So, millions of smells are captured by our brain in one single day ... Interestingly, the nose is only a conductor of smells from the outside world, while the main receptors for recognizing smells are contained in the cerebral lobes, which, in turn, send signals to the receptors in the nose. It is at this stage that the process of capturing and subsequently recognizing odors takes place.

With our hearing, the situation is almost the same. Thanks to the complex structure of the auditory chamber, the eardrums and everything else, the sound passing through the ear signals the brain how, and is "filtered". Too harsh, coarse sounds annoy us, but soft and pleasant ones - on the contrary - become pleasant ... If you bring the source of negative sound too close to your ear, we will immediately get a negative reaction ... In the most radical cases, this can lead to a complete lack of hearing and blocking receptors. (Therefore, for example, it is so important to understand what kind of headphones you are using. According to experts, if you are used to blocking the sounds of the surrounding world, then it is best to refuse vacuum headphones, because they are the most annoying to our ears).

From music to flowers

As we know, from the basic, saturated colors, by mixing others, tones and midtones, shadow and brightness are formed. The range of colors is varied, if not huge ...

In turn, the smell that best matches it is attributed to a certain color. It sounds a little strange, how is this even possible, do the senses really deceive us so often?

In fact, discoveries in perfumery have made this process of bringing scent to color. When creating a particular scent, perfumers use colors in their terminology. So, you can find the color "turquoise", "sea wave", "mahogany", "green apple", etc. This also expresses the richness of the smell. The more the smell goes to bright colors, the more saturated it is. (Bright, red colors are richer than cold, blue and dark).

Subsequently, when obtaining the formulas of the fragrance, researchers began to introduce sound to this tradition. As everyone knows, there are only seven notes in the world. Any musical instrument produces sounds based on the combinations of this "seven".

However, in perfumery, when creating a fragrance, only three, so-called, notes are used.

Top note:

· Note of the heart (or also called "heart");

· Base notes;

As you move from one note to another, the scent of perfume intensifies. The top note - has the initial smells that we are able to smell when we first meet, for example with.

The heart note, or "heart note" - unfolds after the top note. In it we can feel the main components of the aroma, its constituent parts. When creating a heart note, stronger and more stable fragrance components are used than in the case of the top note, where "lightness" and "unobtrusiveness" are the main criteria of the fragrance.

The scent smoothly transitions from a heart note to a base note. In it, as a rule, those components are concentrated that will remain with you after some time. The base notes include harsher and stronger aromas, especially citrus, woody and spicy. it is they who leave behind a long "train".

Why do spirits "listen"?

Based on the foregoing, we can say that when we meet and then use the fragrance, we just “listen” to the perfume, like musicians passing through the entire sound spectrum of the fragrance, from the top - heart - to the base notes.

Therefore, do not be surprised if, when buying a new scent in a perfumery store, the consultant will suggest you "listen" to the scent of your chosen perfume. In perfumery, this terminology has become commonplace for a long time.

By the way, it is with such a harmonious combination of smell, color and sound that a unique aroma is born, just like this, through painstaking work and a long ratio of these three components, famous perfume brands create masterpieces of their collection, which have to take their rightful place among the "favorites" of buyers.

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In the event that you happen to get into a perfume store, while pursuing the idea of ​​buying yourself a new original scent, you always need to follow a few unspoken rules for choosing it, which give you a chance not to get into a mess and become the owner of a truly exclusive purchase.

When and how to choose a perfume?

So, it is better to go for perfume in the morning, literally immediately after waking up. It even has a scientific basis: it is in the morning that a person's nose recognizes smells and aromas best of all. It is even better if you go to a salon or a store without having the remnants of yesterday's perfume on your clothes or skin and without perfume with your favorite scent.

In almost all perfumery stores, you will initially be offered to "taste" the scent of perfume preserved on blotters. This is the name of the special thick paper strips, pre-perfumed with all brands of eau de toilette and colognes available in the assortment. True connoisseurs of perfume are sure that this way of buying perfume can only be compared with purchasing a machine or a coffee maker that has not been personally tested. And if this situation can still be somehow corrected, then the wrongly chosen aroma will definitely gather dust on the dressing table, reminding of an unsuccessful purchase.

The only way to check for the perfect sound of a scent is by applying it to the skin. In stores, special test bottles are stocked up for this. But the heat in the room can become a hindrance, numerous buyers with the same intention to find "their" aroma and even your mood. Also, samples of different eau de toilette do not need to be applied to the same place, which may well be classified as perfume suicide.