Dictionary

nosewitness en · NOUN

Etymology

From nose + witness, by analogy with eyewitness and earwitness.

Meanings

1. A witness who gives evidence of what they have smelled.
   • In 1988, the Netherlands national soccer team won the UEFA Championship, beating the Soviet Union 2-0. Celebration ensued. According to nosewitnesses, the smell of the locker room included dirty clothes, coconut shampoo, sweat, smelly feet, leather, grass and Champagne. [image caption] 2020 December 14, Sophie Haigney, “What Does History Smell Like?”, in The New York Times:
   • Our language is shot through with expressions that point to this visual primacy: when we need to discover the facts about a crime we seek an eyewitness, not an earwitness. If we were dogs we would probably sniff out a nosewitness but since we are primates and not carnivores we look for someone who saw it done. 1987 March, David F. Armstrong, “Word, Sign And Object”, in Journal of the Washington Academy of Sciences, volume 77, number 1, →JSTOR, page 28:

Forms