臭 (xiù): sense of smell

Meanings

1 sense of smell
2 odor; scent
3 to smell bad

Characters

Same graph 自 (nose) + 犬 (dog) — but under the xiù reading the meaning stays at the original neutral 'odor / smelling', preserved today only in idiomatic compounds.

Examples

他做事无声无臭，从不张扬。

Tā zuòshì wúshēngwúxiù, cóng bù zhāngyáng.

He works quietly without any fanfare — never makes a fuss about it.

这小子乳臭未干，就敢顶嘴？

Zhè xiǎozi rǔxiùwèigān, jiù gǎn dǐngzuǐ?

This kid's still wet behind the ears and he dares talk back?

Tips

register

The xiù reading is literary and survives mainly in fixed expressions: 乳臭未干 (smell of mother's milk still on you = green/inexperienced) and 无声无臭 (no sound, no scent = unnoticed). The standalone noun 'sense of smell' is almost always written as 嗅觉 or 嗅 (the dedicated character built later by adding the mouth radical 口). Don't use xiù in everyday speech.

history

Originally 臭 was the general word for 'odor' — neutral, just whatever the nose picks up (the 自-nose + 犬-dog graph). Classical Chinese uses it for fragrance and stench alike. As the negative sense took over in everyday speech (the chòu reading), scribes coined 嗅 to hold the neutral 'smelling' sense, leaving 臭 as a literary residue in idioms.

Components

radical

自 zì

self; nose (original)

Top 自 is the indexing radical — a nose pictograph (compare 鼻 'nose'). Under the xiù reading this nose meaning is fully alive: the character names what the nose does — perceive odor.

semantic

犬 quǎn

dog

Bottom 犬 (dog) is the smelling agent. Under xiù the compound keeps its original neutral force: nose + dog = keen olfactory perception, hence 'sense of smell' and 'odor' in general — the chòu narrowing to 'stink' came later.