flair

Etymology

It is borrowed from Old French flair (“odour, scent”),^[2][3][4][5] from flairier (“to give off an odour; to smell”), modern flairer,^[2][3][5][6] from Vulgar Latin *flāgrō, a dissimilated form of Latin frāgrō (“to give off a (sweet) smell”), the source of fragrant.^{[3][4][5][2][7]} Barnhart explains the l as dissimilation of the first r before the second.^[4] The modern sense is a 19th-century reborrowing, borrowed from French flair, in which it meant a hound's sense of smell.^{[4][8][6][9][10]}

Earliest recorded meaning

An odour, a smell: 1340, in R. Rolle's Pricke of Conscience.^[2] Etymonline dates it to the mid-14th century,^[3] and Barnhart finds flayre, fragrance or odour, about 1390.^[4] This sense is obsolete after 1400.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The modern word begins in 1881, in E. Lynn Linton's My Love!, with the sense of a power of scent: keen, instinctive perceptiveness.^[2][4][6] The image is of a hound that can detect a scent, here the essence of a situation, and react to it.^[7][3] The weaker sense of a special aptitude or talent is first recorded in American English, in Sinclair Lewis's Arrowsmith (1925),^[4][3] and the sense of stylishness or originality followed.^[8][9][6] A verb, to scent or smell out, is recorded from 1919, in Masefield's Reynard the Fox.^[2][9] In hunting, flair is still occasionally the scent left by the quarry or a hound's sense of smell.^[8]

Timeline

• 1340 – an odour, a smell (obsolete after 1400).^[2]
• c. 1390 – flayre, fragrance or odour.^[4]
• 1881 – instinctive discernment.^[2][4][6]
• 1919 – verb, to scent.^[2]
• 1925 – special aptitude, in Sinclair Lewis.^[4][3]

Meanings

Noun

1. A natural talent or aptitude: She has a flair for languages.^[8][6]
2. Instinctive discernment; keen perception.^[8][6][2]
3. Distinctive style or elegance: He decorates every room with flair.^[8][6][9]
4. (hunting, rare) The scent left by the quarry, or a hound's sense of smell.^[8]
5. (obsolete, 1340–1400) An odour, a smell.^[2][4]

Verb

1. To scent or smell out; figuratively, to detect.^[2][9]

Related words

• fragrant
• fragrance
• flare

Usage notes

Flair is also an old name for the ray or skate, recorded from 1668, perhaps from Old French flair, a kind of flatfish;^[2][9] the name was used in Fife.^[11]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
6. ^ a b c d e f g h Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ a b Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b c d e f g Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
9. ^ a b c d e f Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
11. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)