ETYMOLOGY
after Smelfungus, a hypercritical traveller in A Sentimental Journey through France and Italy (1768) by Laurence Sterne (died 1768 British novelist), who intended this character to satirize Tobias Smollett (died 1771 British novelist) for his descriptions in Travels through France and Italy (1766)
EXAMPLE
“…I was, however, much pleased to see that red maintains its ground against all other colors, because red is the color of Mr. Jefferson’s ********, Tom Paine’s nose, and my slippers. Let the grumbling smellfungi of this world, who cultivate taste among books, cobwebs, and spiders, rail at the extravagance of the age; for my part, I was delighted with the magic of the scene, and as the ladies tripped through the mazes of the dance, sparkling and glowing and dazzling, I, like the honest Chinese, thanked them heartily for the jewels and finery with which they loaded themselves, merely for the entertainment of bystanders, and blessed my stars that I was a bachelor…”
From: Salmagundi; or, The Whim-Whams and Opinions of Launcelot Langstaff, (pseudonym) Esq. and Others
By William Irving, James Kirke Paulding and Washington Irving, 1807
Lexicophilia 