Etymologically
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scent

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Pronunciation

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

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)