today's word from dictionary.com, which includes this citation:

The body politic produces noisome and unseemly substances, among which are politicians.

--P. J. O'Rourke, "No Apparent Motive," The Atlantic, November 2002

I detect a distinct odor from that body...

Body politic not annoy some, annoy all.

I liked the comedian's (can't remember his name) comment about breaking the word down to understand it. "Poly- is a math term which means many. And a tic is a blood sucking insect."

I recently came across a very nice word, which is a perfect synonym for noisome. Mephitic. If Phoebe (from Friends) was an AWADer, her cat might have been a mephitic mephistopheles, what!

You can't beat PJ for stringing the words together, can you?

her cat might have been a mephitic mephistopheles, what!

Isn't there already a mephitis mephitica, a.k.a. the common skunk? translated from the Latin as "the smelliest of the smelly"?
mentioned in of all places When Worlds Collide/After Worlds Collide, by Edwin Balmer and Philip Wylie, ca. 1936 I think

So how did we wind up with noisome meaning smelly when noisy refers to sound?

What kind of a noise annoys an oyster? My dictionary says "noisome" is aphetic for annoy,
neaning the "a" got dropped.And skunks are Mustelidae.
Mephitis mephitis.

I read a few post about "noisome" but I still don't understand what does noisome means. Does "body politic" means metaphorically speaking "party" - ask you about the above Krzysztof from Poland.

it seems noisome needs some clarification:
A) the root is noy (as in annoy); probably not related to noise.
B) only one sense has to do specifically with smell; to wit,
1. Harmful, injurious, noxious
Suche bookes, writinges,..teachinges, and instructions, as be pestiferous, and noysome. - Henry VIII
2. Offensive to the sense of smell; ill-smelling.
His blind and aged father..lay in a noisome dungeon, while he enjoyed the free air. - Mary Shelly, Frankenstein
3. Disagreeable, unpleasant, offensive.
Even such a noisome thing as a collection of postage stamps. - William James, Talks to Teachers
4. Annoying, troublesome. Obs. rare.

Krzysztof, the body politic is an old-fashioned expression meaning the state, or politicians in general.

Bingley