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

[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 :-)