All in the nose

Naris, the word for ‘nostril’ in Latin, is used in the plural (nares) to mean ‘nose’. The Latin word derives from the Greek verb ναω meaning ‘to flow’ (just as the Greek word for ‘nose’ (ῥις, ῥινος) dervies from ῥεω, another verb meaning ‘to flow’). So the nose is associated radically with its flux―a throwback, perhaps, to an ancient theory of humours.

In Latin homo naris emunctae (lit. ‘a man of clean nostril’) means someone ‘of keen perception’ or ‘a shrewd man’; whereas homo naris obesae (‘lit. ‘a man of fat nostril’) indicates a dull-witted person and connotes a certain coarseness.

Overall, there is the sense that the nose, as an organ of perception, has more to it than a sense of smell. As Sir Toby Belch says in Act II Scene iii of Twelfth Night, ‘To hear by the nose, it is dulcet in contagion.’