Linguist Brianne Hughes has compiled more than 1200 cutthroat compounds, including smell-feast meaning a freeloader, and smellfungus, a chronic complainer. For a lively primer about such compounds, check out her video. This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Smell-Feast and Smellfungus”
Earlier I mentioned cutthroat compounds, which are a particular type of compound word.
And the fact that linguist Breanne Hughes has collected more than 1,200 of these.
A lot of them really old. Like another one is smell feast.
Oh, I think I know this one. This is somebody who invites themselves to your meal.
Yes, yes.
Like a parasite or a greedy sponge or somebody who walks by your house and smells whatever is cooking and just happens to stop in at that moment.
A smell feast.
I like that one.
And smell fungus is a discontented person or a grumbler or a fault finder.
Oh, so maybe they have a look on their face like they smelled a nasty fungus?
Yeah, I think so.
You can find more than 1,200 of these on Breanne Hughes’ Encyclopedia Breannica.
That’s her website.
And there’s also a great video where she talks about these.
