Subject: Re: [lojban] name of smells/chemicals

From: And Rosta <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 08 Nov 2001 12:51:20 +0000

jimc:
#> > Likewise for the chemical one smells (a) when opening a roll of
#> > 35mm film, and (b) in the breath or sweat of someone who is extremely
#> > deydrated. A German doctor told me it was [keton], which I took
#> > to be 'acetone'.
#>
#> Acetone is a ketone, but I don't think it's the relevant one, as
#> acetone is rather toxic. Probably some random mix of larger
#> ketones.
#
#For some reason, when you metabolize fat a byproduct is acetone, and 
#when a person is very hungry there's enough that you can smell it on his 
#breath. I don't [think I] produce acetone when dehydrated, though I do 
#then get bad breath from other odorants; however, there's a correlation 
#between running out of water and running out of food, which may make 
#people associate acetone breath with dehydration.
#
#To my nose, the odor from antique :-) 35mm film is other than acetone.

If acetone doesn't smell like new rolls of 35mm film, then maybe it's not
the chemical I was talking about. To me it smells like the breath of my
scarletfevered son and the body odour of me with a malady that
struck me down with fever each day at sunset.

English vocab for smells is really really crap. It occurred to me that 
Lojban could do better by a triangulation method -- pick dissimilar
things that smell the same, and that will pick out the exact smell
you mean and hence give the ingredients for a good lujvo. But 
apparently not.

--And.