olfactory

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin olfactōrius (“used for smelling”),^{[2][3][4][5][6]} formed from the past participle stem of olfaciō (“to get the smell of, sniff”), and the suffix -ōrius.^[2][3][4][6] The noun was at first from olfactōrium (“a substance for smelling, a smelling-bottle”), the neuter of the adjective used as a noun.^[2] The OED notes that the Latin adjective is recorded in the 2nd century AD in a variant form;^[2] Hoad, the Shorter Oxford and the Oxford Dictionary of English derive it instead from olfactō, a frequentative of the verb.^[7][8][9] The verb is formed from oleō (“to give off a smell”) and faciō (“to make, do”),^{[3][4][5][10]} so that the word means "making smell".^[11] Ayto calls the verb a blend.^[11] Klein, Skeat and Weekley explain the l of the verb for smell as standing for an older d, which relates it to odor (“smell, scent”);^[10][12][13] Etymonline traces the second element to Proto-Indo-European *dhe- (“to set, put”).^[3] French olfactoire is recorded from 1665.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

As an adjective, relating to the sense of smell: 1658, in Edward Phillips's dictionary The New World of English Words.^[2][4] The noun, in the sense of a thing to be smelled, appears two years earlier, in Blount's Glossographia (1656).^[2]

Semantic evolution

Etymonline glosses the early adjective as "making or causing to smell; having the sense of smell".^[3] Johnson (1755) defined it as "having the sense of smelling", with a quotation from Locke on the olfactory nerves, and traced it to a French word.^[14] The noun had two rare senses that died out, a thing to be smelled (1656) and the sense of smell (1775);^[2] from 1797 it meant an organ of smell, usually in the plural, and also a person's sense of smell.^[2][15]

Timeline

• 1656 – noun, a thing to be smelled (obsolete).^[2]
• 1658 – relating to the sense of smell.^[2][4][6]
• 1775 – noun, the sense of smell (obsolete).^[2]
• 1797 – noun, an organ of smell, or one's sense of smell, usually in the plural.^[2]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Of or relating to the sense of smell: the olfactory nerves of a dog.^{[15][6][5][2]}

Noun

1. An organ or nerve of smell, usually in the plural; one's sense of smell.^[15][2]

Word family

• olfactorily
• nonolfactory
• olfactory bulb
• olfactory lobe
• olfactory nerve

Related words

• olfactometer
• olfaction
• odor
• redolent

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 o Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
6. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
11. ^ a b Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
12. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
13. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
14. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
15. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins