savor

Etymology

The noun is inherited from Middle English savour, also savur and savor,^[2][3] borrowed from Old French savor, also savour and savur,^[4][5][3] from Latin sapor (“taste, flavor”), accusative sapōrem,^[4][5][6] from sapiō (“to taste, have a flavor”),^[7][8][9] for which the American Heritage Dictionary refers to Proto-Indo-European *sep-.^[7] The Anglo-Norman noun is recorded from the first third of the 12th century.^[10] The verb is inherited from Middle English savouren, borrowed from Old French savourer,^[2][11][4] from Late Latin sapōrō (“to give taste or flavor”), from the same Latin noun.^{[4][5][3][12]} Ayto notes that the Latin verb meant both "to taste" and "to be wise", and that the second meaning gave English sapient.^[13]

Earliest recorded meaning

Agreeable flavor, taste, sweetness: savur in the Ancrene Riwle, which Barnhart dates to probably before 1200.^[4] Etymonline has about 1200,^[5] and the 1989 edition of the OED has before 1225 for taste as a quality.^[14] The verb is recorded from probably before 1250, first as "to give pleasure to".^[4][5]

Semantic evolution

From the start the noun covered both a pleasant flavor or smell and the pleasure itself;^[5] by about 1300 it could mean the flavor of anything, good or bad,^[5] and in the late 14th century it was used for taste as a property of matter, as in Trevisa's "Sauour is perceyued and y-knowe by taste".^[5][2] Chaucer has the noun 22 times and Gower 3 times, for flavor, smell and pleasure.^[15] Several figurative senses have died out: attractive quality or merit, until the late 15th century; delight, until the mid-16th century; and perception or understanding, until the mid-17th century.^[12] The transferred sense of a thing's essential quality or its power to interest is from the mid-17th century.^[12] The smell sense, recorded from before 1300, is now poetic or archaic,^[14][12] as is the figurative "repute", from 1535.^[14][12] The verb moved along the same lines, from having a taste or smell to perceiving and enjoying one: "to relish, enjoy" is recorded from probably 1382,^[4] and the sense of perceiving by taste from the early 15th century.^[5] The Shorter Oxford now singles out tasting with relish and, figuratively, enjoying an experience.^[12] Savour of, to show traces of something, is from 1548.^[14] Johnson (1755) gave "a scent; odour" first for the noun, and "to like" and "to exhibit taste of" for the verb.^[16] In Scots and northern English dialect the noun also meant a bad smell or a small morsel of food, and in Cornwall a relish of meat or fish.^[17]

Timeline

• before 1200 – agreeable flavor, taste, sweetness.^[4] Etymonline dates it about 1200.^[5]
• before 1225 – attractive quality, merit (obsolete).^[14]
• before 1250 – verb, to give pleasure to.^[4][5]
• before 1300 – a smell, perfume or aroma.^[14]
• before 1300 – verb, of food or drink, to taste well or ill.^[14]
• c. 1300 – verb, to have a pleasant smell.^[5]
• c. 1350 – verb, to give a taste or flavor to; to season.^[4]
• 1382 – verb, to relish, enjoy.^[4]
• 1422 – flavoring, spice (obsolete).^[14]
• 1535 – repute, estimation.^[14]
• 1536 – verb, to smell offensively (obsolete).^[14]
• 1548 – verb, savour of, to show traces of something.^[14]
• 1605 – character, style or sort (obsolete).^[14][12]

Meanings

Noun

1. A particular taste or smell: the savor of roasted garlic.^[7][18]
2. The quality of something that is perceived by taste or smell.^[3][7][18]
3. A distinctive quality, or a slight trace of one.^[7][18]
4. The power to excite interest or pleasure.^[18][12]
5. (archaic) Reputation.^[18][12]

Verb

1. To have a particular taste or smell, often with of: a sauce that savors of cloves.^[7][18][3]
2. To show a trace or suggestion of something, usually with of.^[18][12][3]
3. To give flavor to; to season.^[18][12]
4. To taste or smell something with pleasure.^[18][12]
5. To relish or enjoy an experience, dwelling on it.^[18][12]
6. (archaic) To be agreeable or pleasing.^[3][12]

Word family

• savorer
• savorous
• savorless
• savoringly

Related words

• savory
• sapient
• sage
• sapid
• sapor

Usage notes

Savor is the American spelling and savour the chiefly British one; the derivatives vary in the same way.^[5][18][6]

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 Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
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 d e f g h i j k l m Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
7. ^ a b c d e f The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
8. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
11. ^ Mayhew, A. L.; Skeat, Walter W. (1888), A Concise Dictionary of Middle English from A.D. 1150 to 1580, Oxford: Clarendon Press
12. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
13. ^ Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
14. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
15. ^ Benson, Larry D., Glossarial Concordance to Middle English (Chaucer, Gower), Johns Hopkins University, github.com/jhu-digital-manuscripts/gcme
16. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
17. ^ 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)
18. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins