perfume

Etymology

It is borrowed from Middle French parfum (also perfum),^{[2][3][4][5][6]} a noun formed from the verb parfumer (“to fumigate; to scent”),^[2][7][8] which came into English separately as the verb perfume.^[2][8] The French verb is first found about 1272 in a medical text showing Italian influence, translating fūmigō (“to fumigate”),^[2] and was probably taken from Old Occitan perfumar or from dialect Italian perfumare (obsolete parfumare, modern profumare).^{[4][3][6][8][9]} It means literally "to smoke through", from per (“through, thoroughly”) and fūmō (“to smoke”),^{[5][9][10][11]} from fūmus (“smoke”).^[5][7] The OED compares perfum (1399 or earlier) and perfume (1471 or earlier).^[2] Early English forms beginning with par- were regularly assimilated to the Latin prefix,^[12][7] and the second element is the same as in fume.^[11]

Earliest recorded meaning

The fumes given off by a burning substance, especially sweet-smelling ones, or such fumes used to fumigate a house or inhaled as a remedy: 1533 in Elyot's Castel of Helth according to Barnhart,^[13] 1538 in Elyot's Dictionary according to the OED and Merriam-Webster.^[2][6] The verb is recorded in the same 1538 dictionary in the sense "to fumigate".^[2][13]

Semantic evolution

Ayto observes that while fume has gone downhill in meaning, perfume has stayed among pleasant smells.^[11] The sense of smoke from burning faded quickly: the OED's last quotation for it is from 1578.^[2] By 1542 the noun named a substance that gives off a sweet smell when burned, such as incense,^[2][4] and later, usually, a fragrant liquid of essential oils and alcohol applied to the body.^[2][14] From the 1590s it also meant the fragrance itself, as in Marlowe,^[2] and figuratively an air or suggestion of something.^[2] The verb followed the same path, from fumigating (1538, obsolete after 1814) to filling a place with the smoke of incense (1546) and to giving a pleasant smell to something (1539).^[2][6] Johnson (1755) defined the noun as a strong sweet odour used to scent other things, quoting Bacon.^[15] In American Black slang perfume was used from 1942 for presenting unpleasant facts in the best light.^[16]

Timeline

• 1533 – fumes from a burning substance (Barnhart).^[13]
• 1538 – the noun, pleasant fumes, and the verb, to fumigate.^[2][6]
• 1539 – the verb, to give a sweet smell to.^[2][4]
• 1542 – a substance that smells sweet when burned.^[2][4]
• 1546 – the verb, to fill with the smoke of incense.^[2][6]
• a1593 – a fragrance, in Marlowe.^[2]
• c. 1595 – figuratively, a suggestion of something.^[2]
• 1942 – (American Black slang) to make unpleasant facts sound better.^[16]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A fragrant liquid made from essential oils and alcohol, natural or synthetic, applied to the body to give it a pleasant smell: She dabbed some perfume behind her ears.
2. A pleasant smell; a fragrance: The perfume of lilacs drifted across the garden.

Verb

1. To give a pleasant smell to; to fill with fragrance: Pine needles perfumed the cabin.
2. To put perfume on.

Word family

• perfumeless
• perfumy
• perfumer
• perfumery
• unperfumed

Related words

• fume
• fumigate

Usage notes

The noun is stressed on the first syllable in British English, and in American English on either syllable;^[2] the verb is stressed on either syllable, and Collins gives it with stress on the second.^[2][8][14] Of the words for a pleasant smell, Dictionary.com notes that perfume usually suggests a strong, rich odour, natural or manufactured.^[17]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
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 e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
8. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
11. ^ a b c Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
12. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
13. ^ a b c Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
14. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
15. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
16. ^ a b Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
17. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House