pʔus

Jehai

Etymology

Compare Khmu pʔúus (“to smell bad”). Burenhult says this and other "similarities point to a remarkable stability in odor representation in the Austroasiatic language family".

Verb

pʔus

1. to be musty, to have a musty or moldy smell (like rotting vegetation, old homes, stale food, unwashed clothes or people, some mushrooms, and the feathers of some birds)

Coordinate terms

• plʔɛŋ (“have a blood-like smell that attracts tigers”), see that entry for more

References

• Niclas Burenhult, Asifa Majid, Olfaction in Aslian Ideology and Language, Senses & Society, volume 6, issue 1 (2011)