The Language of Smell

Can you describe a smell without referring to the possible source of that smell, or something that smells similar? There are such words, like fragrant, stinky, or musky and a few others, but compare that to the huge number of words we can use to describe something we see without referring the the exact object. Most of the time, we just rely on shared knowledge of smell sources, such as "this smells like (bananas, lilac, crap, etc)." In English, you can be on the phone, go outside, sniff, and say "someone's cooking out," and the person you're talking to will instantly know what you are smelling because of our shared experience. Imagine trying to describe that smell without referring to the probable source. 

However, this only applies to Western languages. Some languages have a wide vocabulary to describe smells. What makes the difference is codability, or the tendency for all speakers of the language to agree on descriptive words. Dr. Erica Brozovsky explains the linguistics of smell across different languages.