boysmell

English

Etymology

Etymology tree

Proto-West Germanic *bōjō

Old English *bōia

Middle English boye

English boy

Proto-Indo-European *(s)meld-

Proto-West Germanic *smalljan

Old English *smiellan

Middle English smellen

English smell

English boysmell

Compound of boy +‎ smell. Popularized as an Internet meme by a post on 4chan, published 19 December 2020 and widely shared on social media.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈbɔɪˌsmɛl/
• Rhymes: -ɔɪsmɛl
• Hyphenation: boy‧smell

Noun

boysmell (uncountable)

1. (slang) A boy or man's body odour, often regarded as attractive.

   Coordinate terms: manscent; girlsmell

   • 1930, John Dos Passos, The 42nd Parallel (U.S.A.), New York, N.Y.: Modern Library, published 1937, →OCLC, page 143:

     The smell of sweat and riverwater and the warm boysmell of Alec's hair and shoulders made her dizzy.

   • 1979, Chuck Kinder, The Silver Ghost, New York, N.Y.: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, →ISBN, page 38:

     You rub your eyes, yawning, then open the backseat door and gently shake your boy awake. You pick him up, enjoying as always the clean boysmell of his hair. Still half asleep, he wraps his arms around your neck.

   • 1985, Felice Picano, Ambidextrous, 1st Plume Printing edition, New York, N.Y.: New American Library, published 1989, →ISBN, page 84:

     We remained there almost an hour until I was filled with looking at the concern on his face, filled with the texture of his long dark hair—every strand tinted an identical black walnut—feeling its soft texture across my face when he leaned close, filled with his boysmell and boybreath and the strength and security of his arms, […]

   • 2022 May 30, @bonkey_bong, Twitter‎^[1], archived from the original on 2022-05-30:

     boysmell is good when it's coming from someone who's not cis

   • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:boysmell.