Etymologically
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odoror

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ɔˈdoː.rɔr][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [oˈdɔː.ror][1]

Forms

odōror (present infinitive odōrārī, perfect active odōrātus sum); first conjugation, deponent[1] The TLL notes an active form odōrō and the spelling oder- in Columella and Tacitus.[2]

Etymology

It is from Latin odor (“smell”) + -ō.[3][2][1] De Vaan traces odor to Proto-Italic *odōs (“odour”) and the root Proto-Indo-European *h3ed- (“to smell”).[4] Cognate with Ancient Greek ὄζω (ózō, “to smell”) and Lithuanian úosti (“to smell, sniff”).[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan records it from Plautus on.[4] In the Menaechmi it is to sniff at something: odorare hanc quam ego habeo pallam, “smell this mantle I have”;[3][5] in the Miles gloriosus it is to scent out, ibo odorans, quasi canis venaticus, “I'll go sniffing like a hunting dog”.[5]

Semantic evolution

Lucretius uses it of catching a smell,[3] Horace of scenting food,[5] and Pliny the Elder of the keen scent of vultures.[5] In the Vulgate's Job it is used of smelling the battle.[5] Cicero uses it figuratively, of men who sniff after an office, of tracing and investigating everything, and of scenting what someone thinks or what will happen.[3][5] Tacitus has someone who had only had a sniff of philosophy, odoratus philosophiam, and Lactantius uses it of grasping the truth only slightly.[3][5]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus, of sniffing a mantle and scenting like a hound.[3][5][6]
  • 96–55 BC – Lucretius, of catching a smell.[3][6]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero, of scenting out and investigating.[3][5][6]
  • 98–115 AD – Tacitus, of a smattering of philosophy.[3][6]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To smell, catch the smell of; to sniff at.[3][5][1]
  2. To scent out, detect by smell.[5]
  3. (figurative) To get wind of; to search out, investigate; to aim at.[3][5][1]
  4. (figurative) To take a mere sniff at (a subject), acquire a smattering of.[3][5]

Word family

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  4. ^ a b c de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de