We stayed in by the telly, although the room was smelly

[venta]

Just another word-use survey. Consider the following sentence:

"Thank you very much for the smellies you gave me for my birthday."

[Poll #1618623]

Comments

[secretrebel.livejournal.com]

If the smellies came with bellies that would be something very different. ;)

[venta.livejournal.com]

Er... I think you lost me that time!

[huskyteer.livejournal.com]

I know what it means but I wouldn't ever use it, on account of not being an auntie.

[phlebas.livejournal.com]

Would receiving smellies not make you into one, or at least a reasonable approximation?

[venta.livejournal.com]

Oh dear.

[venta.livejournal.com]

Well, in my defence I was considering using it in a letter to an auntie.

Well, a fake auntie. Finding myself rather poorly provided with relations, I industriously spent the first ten or so years of my life rapaciously appropriating other people's.

[beckyl.livejournal.com]

It's an 'I have no idea what to get you and you're female so some form of potions, lotions, unguents or bath stuff must be appropriate' present.

Up the Junction, Squeeze

[venta.livejournal.com]

One kudo to you for recognising the title.

Actually, in this specific case, it's a present I actually requested (my tastes in toiletries running slightly more expensively than my current budget allows :)

[beckyl.livejournal.com]

In which case, huzzah! I've only ever used it in a manner where I was groping for something nice to say about a present I didn't really want, but this probably says more about what I like as presents than the gifts themselves.

[undyingking.livejournal.com]

I reckon if you've asked for a specific item, it's no longer a smelly -- smelly for me has to be generic.

(Actually, that's an interesting point: does it have a singular? Or is it always smellies, no matter how few the number of items?)

[venta.livejournal.com]

Generic, you say? OK, I hadn't thought of that.

Y'see, I didn't want to start a letter saying "thank you for the shower gel and the bubble bath and..." and "toiletries" sounds like a terrible formal word somehow. So I was just looking for a generic catch-all term to be the equivalent of toiletries without sounding quite so snotty and like a hotel reception.

[undyingking.livejournal.com]

Mm, good point, it does make a useful workign collective term. I don't think I've ever been given more than one such at a time :-)

[venta.livejournal.com]

So despite the fact you weren't sure if there was a singular, you've only ever had one at once...

:)

[undyingking.livejournal.com]

Fortunately I was never called upon to describe it :-)

[ringbark.livejournal.com]

I recognised the reference song title too, but I only just got here.

So where's the mandatory ticky box.

Thought you might like to know that the other meaning of the term, apart from cheap cosmetics in a wicker basket, relates to those people who listen to that dreadful loud music (and I was quoting my late mother there) and wear denim with embroidered band logos and stink of patchouli oil.

[venta.livejournal.com]

So where's the mandatory ticky box.

It's all part of my plan to train people not to tick boxes if there isn't one they consider appropriate :)

[eviltwinemma.livejournal.com]

Where I was brought up, "Smellies" meant gift-style toiletries (like those Body Shop baskets or Stuff From Lush), or was a perjorative (sp?) term for fans of rock & metal. Either would probably be considered a welcome gift if they were nice smellies who weren't too posh/pretentious, weren't cruel to animals and didn't make me sneeze :-)

[jiggery-pokery.livejournal.com]

Apparently I don't know what it means, though I thought I did. I had the term fairly confidently pegged to refer to perfume.

[venta.livejournal.com]

It could, but to me it's more generally toiletries. Probably perfumed or "nice" toiletries rather than a packet of coal-tar soap - or gift packs as mentioned by eviltwinemma above.