odor

Forms

• odour (UK)

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English odour, also odur and odor,^[2][3] borrowed from Anglo-Norman odour, also odur,^[4][5][6][7] from Old French odor,^[4][3][8] now odeur,^[4][5] and directly borrowed from Latin odor (“smell, scent”).^[4][3][2] The Anglo-Norman word, recorded in the 12th century, meant a pleasant or unpleasant smell.^[9] Latin odor (early Latin odōs) is an s-stem noun related to oleō (“to give off a smell”), which earlier had -d- for -l-;^[6][3] Etymonline ascribes the -l- to Sabine.^[4] It goes back to Proto-Indo-European *h₃ed- (“to smell”),^[6] and is related to Ancient Greek ὄζω (ózō, “to smell”) and Lithuanian úosti (“to smell, sniff”).^[5][3][4][6] Words from the same root include olfactory, redolent and osmium.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

A smell, especially a sweet one, a scent or fragrance: before 1300, in The Land of Cokaygne (as odur) and in Kyng Alisaunder (as odour).^[3][4][10]

Semantic evolution

From the late 14th century the word was used neutrally of the smell of something, whether pleasant or not;^[4][2] from 1388 it also meant a substance giving off a sweet smell, a perfume.^[10][11] In Middle English it also had the figurative sense of the spiritual fragrance of Christ's sacrifice.^[4] The odour of sanctity (1756) follows odeur de sainteté, the sweet smell said to come from the bodies of saints;^[4][10][11] in good or bad odour, for good or bad reputation, dates from 1835.^[4][10] The Century Dictionary (1895) noted that the word alone usually meant a pleasant smell,^[4] and Dictionary.com notes that in figurative use it is mostly positive.^[12]

Timeline

• before 1300 – odur, odour, a smell, especially a sweet one.^[3][10]
• before 1325 – the spelling odor, in the Cursor Mundi.^[3]
• 1388 – a substance with a sweet smell, a perfume.^[10]
• 1756 – odour of sanctity.^[4][10]
• 1835 – good or bad repute.^[4][10]

Meanings

Noun

1. A smell, pleasant or unpleasant, of a substance or place: the odor of fresh paint.^[13][6][14]
2. A strong, pervasive quality or trace: an odor of scandal.^[13][14][11]
3. Reputation or standing, in the phrases in good odor and in bad odor: The mayor was in bad odor with the voters.^[13][14][11]
4. odor of sanctity: the sweet smell said to come from a saint's body; hence a reputation for holiness, often ironic.^[11][10]

Word family

• odored
• odorless
• odorful
• malodor
• odorize
• odorous

Related words

• odour
• olfactory
• redolent
• odoriferous
• osmium

Usage notes

Odor is the American spelling, and British English writes odour.^[6][14][12] The -our form prevailed after about 1300, and the American -or goes back to Noah Webster.^[4] Dictionary.com distinguishes odor, smell, scent and stench: smell is the most general and neutral, while odor in figurative use is usually positive.^[12]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c d Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
6. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
10. ^ a b c d e f g h i Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
11. ^ a b c d e Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
12. ^ a b c Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
13. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
14. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins