SHANE'S EXCELLENT NEW WORDS: Blood, sweat and tears ... with accompaniment.

It's a potpourri kind of day, crisply perfect for catching up on hastily scribbled notes.

Recently the mayor's twitterganger used an uncommon word.

Back Monday from August vacation. What did I miss? Thank my stars every day that I serve the most anosmatic town in Midwest. #reek

The nose knows -- or in this case, does not.

anosmia

/ænˈɒzmɪə; -ˈɒs-/

noun

1. (pathol) loss of the sense of smell, usually as the result of a lesion of the olfactory nerve, disease in another organ or part, or obstruction of the nasal passages

Derived Forms

anosmatic (ˌænɒzˈmætɪk), anosmic, adjective

Wiktionary adds:

From French anosmatique (“anosmatic”), coined by French anthropologist, anatomist and physician Pierre Paul Broca (1824–1880) in Revue d’Anthropologie (2nd Series), volume II, page 398); analysable as an- +‎ osmatic.

Oddly, Ronnie Van Zant never even met Hizzoner.

It isn't known whether Elton John was a Skynyrd fan, although as Sir Elton once observed, "It's sad; so sad. It's a sad, sad situation -- and it's getting more and more absurd."

lachrymose

[lak-ruh-mohs]

adjective

1. suggestive of or tending to cause tears; mournful.
2. given to shedding tears readily; tearful.

Origin of lachrymose

Latin, 1655-1665 < Latin lacrimōsus, equivalent to lacrim(a) tear (see lachrymal ) + -ōsus -ose1

Related forms

lachrymosely, adverb
lachrymosity [lak-ruh-mos-i-tee], noun

As I write, the temperature outside is comfortably in the 50s Fahrenheit, but just a few days ago it was prime Ohio Valley-caliber sticky and disgusting, and a friend was overheard to say he was "sweating like a pig."

I've heard this phrase my entire life, and have been meaning to look it up for years. Follow the link for the precise explanation; while convoluted, it makes sense.

The Expression "Sweating Like a Pig" Has Nothing to Do with Pigs, by John Farrier (Neatorama)

Pigs don't sweat much, so they wallow in the mud to cool off their bodies. So how did the English language expression "sweating like a pig" develop? It's actually a reference to pig iron, which is form of iron smelting ...

Finally, long before Blood Sweat and Tears was a rock group with horns ...

... it was an inspirational phrase uttered by Winston Churchill in 1940 ... except the famous British prime minister did not coin it.

The first occurrence of the expression that I can find in print is in Sermons on Various Subjects by Christmas Evans, translated from the Welsh by J. Davis, 1837:

Christ the High Priest of our profession, when he laid down his life for us on Calvary, was bathed in his own blood, sweat and tears.

Evans, a.k.a. 'The John Bunyan of Wales' (25 December 1766 - 1838) was an eccentric but widely admired preacher. We can't now be sure if it was he who coined the phrase or his translator. Either way, we can be sure that the phrase was in the language by 1837.