PoMo Language

Googling "smell definition" (without quotes) gives the following as the first hit:

"the sensation that results when olfactory receptors in the nose are stimulated by particular chemicals in gaseous form"

Isn't that non-recursive, or is the recursion simply very well hidden behind science?

You should notice that it took 6 definitions to close the loop of "scent". Scientists are really good at disguising recursion because they are so used to translating into jargon and thinking they're done.

Okay, look up "olfactory receptor", aka. nose. And how are they distinguished from things like hair follicles, epidermis and mucosal epithelial cells? Because they respond to smells. Despite all the latin, the definitions are still recursive. When I was in college we all had the 47th edition of the venerable CRC handbook (now there was a misnomer!). The entry for "sea water" in the index was particularly funny if read out loud. But it was the recursive indices that were the most amusing.