aroma

Forms

aroma m (plural aromas)^[1] The 16th century also used the variants arómate, arómata and arómatra.^[2]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin arōma (“an aromatic substance, spice”), recorded from the early 17th century.^[2][3][4][1] The Latin word is from Ancient Greek ἄρωμα (árōma, “aromatic herb, spice”), found from Hippocrates and Xenophon on.^[5][6] Beekes calls the origin of the Greek word unknown; the ending is the noun suffix -ωμα (-ōma).^[7]

The same learned word is Catalan aroma, Portuguese aroma, Italian aroma and French arôme.^[8][9][1] Galician arume (“aroma, perfume”) is, according to Corominas, a reshaping of the Latinism, felt as a derivative of ar (“air”).^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The DCECH dates the first record to 1606, in Fontecha, and finds it in 1613 in Cervantes's Novelas ejemplares, in the first sense, a gum or other fragrant plant substance.^[2] The BDELC gives 1607 for this sense.^[3] Tirso de Molina listed it among the words of the culteranos.^[2] An earlier form is the plural arómatas in Alfonso X's General Estoria (before 1280), translating the spices of the Song of Songs: especias de arómatas.^[10]

Semantic evolution

The Diccionario de Autoridades has two senses: a gum given off by plants and trees of the East, of either gender, and, in the feminine, the flower of the aromo, called copos in parts of Andalusia.^[11][2] The Academy in 1770 widened the masculine to every fragrant gum, balm, wood or herb.^[12] The sense “perfume, pleasant smell” appears at the beginning of the 19th century and is in the Academy's dictionary of 1884; it is the main sense today.^{[2][3][13][14]}

In Spanish America the word is recorded from 1716, in Guatemala.^[15] In Guatemala, Cuba and the Dominican Republic aroma is also the aromo itself, Acacia farnesiana, and in Puerto Rico the mesquite.^[16][17][18]

Timeline

• before 1280 – the plural arómatas in Alfonso X's General Estoria.^[10]
• c. 1440 – first record of aromático.^[2][3]
• 1606 – first record of aroma, in Fontecha.^[2]
• 1613 – Cervantes's Novelas ejemplares.^[2]
• 1617 – first record of aromatizar.^[3]
• 1716 – first record from the Americas, in Guatemala.^[15]
• 1726 – the Diccionario de Autoridades records the flower of the aromo.^[3][11]
• early 19th century – the sense “perfume”.^[2][3]
• 1884 – the Academy adds “perfume, very pleasant smell” and a Greek etymology.^[13]

Meanings

Noun

1. (feminine) The flower of the aromo, golden, downy and very fragrant, about two centimetres across.^[4][14]
2. (masculine) A perfume, a very pleasant smell: Desde la cocina llegaba un aroma de pan recién hecho.^[4][14][1]
3. (masculine, less often feminine) A gum, balsam, wood or herb of strong fragrance.^[4]
4. (Guatemala, Cuba, Dominican Republic) The aromo tree (Acacia farnesiana).^[16][17]

Word family

• aromatizar
• aromo
• aromar
• aromoso

Related words

• Latin arōma
• Ancient Greek ἄρωμα (árōma)

Usage notes

The word is masculine in the sense of a smell or a fragrant substance and feminine for the flower of the aromo.^[4][14] The Diccionario de Autoridades called the substance sense of either gender, and the Academy noted in 1770 that it was sometimes feminine.^[11][12]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 1, 344
3. ^ a b c d e f g Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. aroma
4. ^ a b c d e Real Academia Española; Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2014–), Diccionario de la lengua española, 23rd ed., online version 23.8, https://dle.rae.es, p. s.v. aroma
5. ^ Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. s.v. ἄρωμα
6. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. arōma
7. ^ Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010), Etymological Dictionary of Greek, with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 10, Leiden; Boston: Brill, p. s.v. ἄρωμα
8. ^ Coromines, Joan (1980–2001), Diccionari etimològic i complementari de la llengua catalana, 10 vols., Barcelona: Curial / La Caixa (online ed., Institut d'Estudis Catalans 2024), p. 1, 401
9. ^ Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. 350
10. ^ a b Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. aroma
11. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 1, 397
12. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1770), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 2nd ed., vol. I: A–B, Madrid: Joachín Ibarra, p. 1, 323
13. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 98
14. ^ a b c d Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. aroma
15. ^ a b Boyd-Bowman, Peter (2003), Léxico hispanoamericano 1493–1993, ed. Ray Harris-Northall and John J. Nitti, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies, p. s.v. aroma
16. ^ a b Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. aroma
17. ^ a b Academia Dominicana de la Lengua; Instituto Guzmán Ariza de Lexicografía (2024), Diccionario del español dominicano, 2nd ed., online at https://ded.igalex.org, p. s.v. aroma
18. ^ Academia Puertorriqueña de la Lengua Española; Universidad de Puerto Rico, Tesoro lexicográfico del español de Puerto Rico, https://tesoro.pr, p. s.v. aroma