The 'must' of their bodies?

[BlueFairyBugsBooks]

I'm just reading a book for review purposes, and the author keeps referring to the 'must' of things. Such as "the familiar must of his body" or 'the comforting must of his old jacket"

Do they mean 'musk'? Or have I been getting the word wrong my entire life?

The 'musty' man in question is 82. So maybe that is what the author meant

From Collins online dictionary.

Musk is a substance with a strong smell which is used in making perfume.

Must: mustiness or mould

So musk(y) could be a pleasant smell, whereas musty/mustiness isn't.

Maybe he was!

There is an author who uses the word "sour" to describe the smell of a body after the person has just woken up. Once I saw it, I couldn't unsee it across several books.

Must as a smell- I think a male animal smell- is familiar to me. Not the same as musty/fusty.

It’s a warm, animal, stuffiness. Like, ‘bloke under blanket’!

Can you tell I don’t work for a perfumier?

I think just because some people conflate the two doesn’t make it correct.

Like how some people say “slither” when they mean “sliver” (as in a thin piece of cake). My pet peeve.

I wonder if you’re thinking of elephants going into “must/musth”, which is sort of like deer going into rut.

@DuploTrain yes, agree - just because some people confuse ‘musk’ with ‘must’ doesn’t mean they actually do mean the same thing.

Very well said. Also a pet peeve of mine!

People often say, "well, does it really matter?". Yes! Yes, it does!

Using something that's been misheard or misunderstood repeatedly doesn't make it right. It's not a doggy dog world and never will be.

Must de Cartier? www.cartier.com/es-es/perfumes/perfumes/must-de-cartier

Must does have another meaning - freshly crushed fruit juice (usually grapes). Maybe it’s a fruity perfume.

I think of must like mustiness ie his jacket is musty - old, damp, familiar

@All2Well to be fair, ‘doggy dog world’ is about the only one of these that I like because I think a doggy dog world would probably be quite nice.

Yeah, even when there's nothing actually wrong with the word, it can really get on the old tits when an author has a massive thing for certain specific and slightly unusual words.

I think for me it's even more noticeable when it's an audiobook for some reason, perhaps because I'm hearing the words at speaking speed one at a time, rather than passing over lines of text with my eyes.

I was listening to one the other day where nobody ever had a body, they had a frame. His bulky frame, her long lithe frame, her muscular frame, his bloodied frame, her delicate frame. It made me start picturing everyone as wire models.

I agree wholeheartedly...BUT...

As lovely as it would be, we can't make it happen...

No matter how much we repeat it as @All2Well says.

Yeah, even when there's nothing actually wrongwith the word, it can really get on the old tits when an author has a massive thing for certain specific and slightly unusual words.

There's an author who I shall not name as they have snowflakey tendencies and will probably post an instagram story #bekind about it if they google themselves, as they seem to regularly, who uses the term,

"Oof!"

Right, left and centre.

"Hello, Nova, off to The Brew Pot for a steaming hot honey and lemon loose leaf tea?"

"Oof! I didn't see you there Emmeline! Not today, someone broke into the Merry Little Book Nook!"

Raphael was walking down the lane clutching all he had left in the world...his flute and the first edition copy of the Lord of The Rings that his mother gave him the day before she died when he spotted the woman. With auburn ringlets and a green velvet coat and eyes to match she looked like something off a Victorian postcard leaning on the lampost as the snowflakes fell like confetti all around her. She was looking for something in the snow, her seaglass eyes searching desperately, he reached out a hand to help -

"OOF!!! Watch what your doing! You didn't half give me a fright there!" she exclaimed,
haughtily, tossing her conker coloured curls.

"Mrs Vanderplum, might I interest you in another slice of sticky toffee salted carabanoffee ginger loaf, I baked it freshly this morning?"

"Oof! I couldn't possibly! Oof, the very thought."

Do we say oof? Do we? When is the last time you said "oof!"?

Or said, "I love the way grandad smells, with his familar must."

Take a big sniff of some old dude's jacket and go "hmmmmm, must. So comforting."

I agree with @groveparker0 . Must is not necessarily an unpleasant smell.

@SoOutingWhoCares someone I follow on Twitter uses ‘Ooof’ entirely too much. I always think it’s the noise a fat middle aged woman makes sitting down on a saggy sofa (I’m fat and middle aged, btw, so I know what I’m talking about). Which amuses me because this Twitter person really thinks a lot of her appearance and wouldn’t like being associated with the words ‘fat and middle aged’.

@WolfFoxHare That makes sense. But I think most oofers oof in private and don't wish to be reminded of it so frequently when reading a novel. It's especially inappropriate when meeting the love of one's life for the first time to oof in their face, years before middle aged spread and saggy sofas set in.

Oofing completely ruins the romance. It's one step below farting imo. Maybe everyone does it at some point. But nobody should write about it. Ever.

Someone please inform editors (all of them) of my decision to permanently censor the oof. And also Elon Musk needs to ban it from Twitter/X.
We can't have it becoming more popular or I'll have to pluck out my own eyes.

Totally agree @SoOutingWhoCares . Ooofing is the very opposite of sexy.

I think you are the one who isn't well read! It is a word and it's being used correctly.

No it’s not. You’re quite wrong.

Webster has one definition of must as musk. So synonyms

Either way, if she’s using the phrases repeatedly such that they stand out then that’s poor writing and editing.

I think it’s an old word, maybe used in Rudyard Kipling? It definitely takes me back to reading as a kid. Colonial stuff. The little Princess etc.

We had a remarkable vocabulary in those days! DS2 is regularly gently teased for using words his peers don’t know or at least use.

I’ve just read a book set in Victorian times where the character receives a letter with red “ceiling “ wax. Who do they employ as proof readers nowadays???