Etymologically
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flair

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Pronunciation

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dates it to the mid-14th century,[3] and Barnhart finds flayre, fragrance or odour, about 1390.[4] This sense is obsolete after 1400.[2]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]

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)