Is there an adverbial form of the word 'smellable'?

September 29, 2009 1:41 PM

Is there a good adverbial form of the word 'smellable'?

I'm looking for a word that functions with respect to the olfactory sense in the same way as 'visibly' does with respect to the visual sense.

In other words, I want to be able to say 'he was smellably drunk' in the same way as 'he was visibly drunk'.

If this doesn't exist in English I would be really curious to know of versions of this in other languages. Actually I'm interested in this whether or not this exists in English.

posted by voronoi to writing & language (25 comments total)

olfactorily
posted by bunny hugger at 1:42 PM on September 29, 2009

odoriferously
posted by jschu at 1:43 PM on September 29, 2009

Odorously
posted by hwyengr at 1:44 PM on September 29, 2009 [1 favorite]

Fantastic. Thank you. Don't know how that evaded my OED perusal.

Do you know of any alternatives?
posted by voronoi at 1:46 PM on September 29, 2009

Aromatically.
posted by afx237vi at 1:46 PM on September 29, 2009

Fragrantly? Maybe reekingly. Malodorously.
posted by empyrean at 1:48 PM on September 29, 2009

Odoriferously is good. Olfactorily isn't quite right, unless the boozer in question has gotten drunk through his sense of smell.
posted by zamboni at 1:50 PM on September 29, 2009

Not the precise word you're looking for, but why not refer to your person as pungently drunk?
posted by sciencegeek at 1:54 PM on September 29, 2009

sciencegeek: It's just an example. The absolute ideal is a (pretty) word that simply connotes 'is doing this or is in this state in such a way that it can be smelled'.
posted by voronoi at 1:56 PM on September 29, 2009

"Visibly odorous" conveys negative smell well (Whereas "visually aromatic could convey the positive")
posted by Cat Pie Hurts at 2:00 PM on September 29, 2009

noisomely
posted by kittyprecious at 2:12 PM on September 29, 2009 [1 favorite]

redolently?
posted by jayder at 3:13 PM on September 29, 2009

"Stinky", really.

(One of my favorite stories about Dr. Johnson: a woman walked up to him and said, "Dr. Johnson, you smell." He responded, "No, madam. You smell. I stink.")
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 3:15 PM on September 29, 2009

What's wrong with "smellably"?
posted by Faint of Butt at 3:20 PM on September 29, 2009

I've always heard "stinking drunk". But in the kind of adverb-y form you're asking for, What about pungently, aromatically... or redolent of liquor.
posted by Red Loop at 3:35 PM on September 29, 2009

"He smelled like booze."
posted by nebulawindphone at 3:55 PM on September 29, 2009

"pungently"
posted by Wavelet at 5:30 PM on September 29, 2009

He was stinking drunk.
He stank of drink.
He staggered in, reeking of drink.
His pores oozed alcohol.
posted by flabdablet at 6:35 PM on September 29, 2009

odiferously, maybe.
posted by The Great Big Mulp at 7:09 PM on September 29, 2009

A different tack: You're right that it's kind of awkward in everyday english. I'd just say it a different way. "The smell made it obvious he was ----".
posted by cmiller at 8:32 PM on September 29, 2009

Olfactible
posted by kprincehouse at 9:46 PM on September 29, 2009

Thank you, everyone. Extra points go to jayder, for finding the perfect word, and kittyprecious, because 'noisomely' is gorgeous.
posted by voronoi at 9:47 PM on September 29, 2009

Olfactibly or smellably seem to be the only hits that have the meaning "capable of being detected by the sense of smell," although it's not clear that either is, you know, actually a real word.
posted by kprincehouse at 9:51 PM on September 29, 2009

Oops, should have previewed. Didn't mean to step on your declaration of victory :)
posted by kprincehouse at 9:58 PM on September 29, 2009

Rather after the fact, but I just decided to google other similar words together and came up with this list:
palpably - touch
visibly - sight
audibly - hearing
aromatically - smell
posted by sciencegeek at 5:10 PM on September 30, 2009