Olere doesn't necessarily have the negative connotation.It's "money doesn't stink."
Olere doesn't necessarily have the negative connotation.
"Money has no smell" is perfectly fine with the context too, I don't see why he felt the need to correct it, as if it were wrong somehow.In the context of this phrase it does.
Bad smell is just a smell, it's just less specific but still perfectly fine with the context. If it were in English they might as well have said "money has no smell" and it'd have been perfectly fine.Because the anecdote it's derived from features Vespesian's question to Titus as to whether Titus felt offended by the money's smell. It has to stink in order to offend the nose, not just have some neutral kind of smell.
Because the negative connotatin is given by the context, not the word itself. Issacus looked like he was correcting OP when there was no need for correction, that's what I mean.Well, if you're trying to say that there's no need to over-correct, J.M's original phrase, I tend to agree. I don't see how the word for smell (even in English) doesn't have any negative connotation, here, though.