scent

Etymology

The verb is inherited from Middle English senten, borrowed from Old French sentir (“to feel, perceive, smell”),^[2][3][4] from Latin sentiō (“to feel, perceive by the senses”),^[3][2] the verb behind sense, sentiment and sentient.^[5] The noun was formed from the verb,^[4][2] probably helped by Anglo-Norman sente (“the characteristic smell of an animal”).^[4] Weekley also suspected contact with Middle French sente (“path, track”), from Latin sēmita.^[6] The c, first seen in the 16th and 17th centuries, is not etymological: it has been put down to the model of ascent and descent,^[3][2] of science,^[7][3] or of words such as scene and sceptre.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

To feel or perceive something by the senses: before 1398, in Trevisa's translation of Bartholomaeus Anglicus.^[4][2] The hunting sense, to perceive by smell, follows in The Master of Game (about 1410).^[4][2]

Semantic evolution

In Middle English sent belonged to the language of hunting: a hound scented its quarry, and the noun was the smell of the animal by which it was tracked,^[3][4] a sense found from 1375 in Barbour's Bruce according to Barnhart,^[2] from about 1422 in the OED.^[4] Figurative uses for any pursuit or investigation followed in the 16th century,^[4][3] and to scent danger, to sense it before it arrives, is recorded from about 1553.^[4] The noun's general sense of an odour, especially a pleasant one, is recorded in Caxton (about 1473),^[4][3] and a fragrant liquid, a perfume, from 1596.^[4] The older sense "perception, feeling", nearer the Latin, died out by about 1590.^[4]

Timeline

• 1375 – the noun, a smell used in tracking (Barnhart).^[2]
• before 1398 – the verb, to feel or perceive.^[4][2]
• c. 1410 – to perceive by smell.^[4][2]
• c. 1422 – the noun, in the OED's first quotation.^[4]
• c. 1473 – an odour, especially a pleasant one.^[4][3]
• 1596 – a perfume.^[4]
• 17th century – the spelling with sc- becomes usual.^[2][5]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A distinctive smell, especially a pleasant one.
2. (chiefly British) Perfume.
3. The smell left by an animal or person, by which it can be tracked; the trail itself, also figuratively.
4. The sense of smell, or an instinctive ability to find things out.
5. A faint sign of something to come.

Verb

1. To detect by smell, or to sense as if by smell.
2. To fill with a pleasant smell; to perfume.
3. Of a hound: to hunt by smell.

Word family

• scentless
• scented
• scent gland
• scent hound
• scent mark

Related words

• sense
• sentiment
• sentient
• consent
• assent
• dissent

Usage notes

In Peeblesshire scent could mean a bad smell, and a scent-bean was a fragrant bean kept in a snuffbox.^[8]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
6. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
7. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
8. ^ 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)