Olfaction was poignantly dubbed the ‘mute sense’ by Diane Ackerman [1], and it is regularly claimed that modern and ancient languages lack resources to communicate about smells [2]. In a recent article [3], I argued that such conclusions are untenable in the face of emerging crosscultural evidence: numerous languages around the world have sizeable lexicons […]

The sense of smell, olfaction, is currently in the spotlight. Although often a neglected sense, smell loss and smell distortions due to coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has increased public awareness of olfaction and its role in health, well-being, and nutrition [1,2]. In this unusual context, Majid [3] provides a timely, well written, and thought-provoking review […]