odor

Forms

odor m (plural odores)^[1] The 14th century also wrote odóór and odoor.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin odor (“smell, scent”).^[2][4][5] Nascentes calls it a learned word, while Wiktionary takes it as inherited and says it displaced the parallel form olor.^[6][1] The two are doublets: the latter continues a non-classical Latin variant with /l/, influenced by oleō (“to smell”).^[7][8] A Galician-Portuguese chronicle of 1344 already uses both.^[3]

The Latin word was taken into or continued in French odeur, Italian odore, Occitan odor and Old French odor; Spanish olor and Catalan olor continue the form with /l/.^[1][9]

The Latin word goes back to the Proto-Italic *odōs (“odour”) and to Proto-Indo-European *h₃ed- (“to smell”), whose cognates include Ancient Greek ὄζω (ózō, “I smell”) and Lithuanian úosti (“to smell”).^[10] De Vaan explains the forms with /l/ as a change of /d/ to /l/ between vowels whose conditions are unclear.^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Cantigas de Santa Maria say of a flower that it gave a far better scent than lilies or violets (mui mellor odor dava / que liros nen violetas, cantiga 128), and another cantiga has dava mui maos odores “gave off very foul smells” (cantiga 152).^[3] In cantiga 251 the noun is feminine: fruita que achasse de mui bõa odor “fruit she found of very good smell”.^[3]

Semantic evolution

In the Crónica Geral of 1344 the word is the scent that marks a holy apparition (com odor grande e maravylhosa claridade), and in the Crónica Troiana both the sweet smell of spices and the stench of the dead.^[3][3] The CTA records it from the 14th-century Trasladação de S. Nicolau.^[11] Bluteau (1712) notes that the word is Latin and refers the reader to the native cheiro.^[12] Viterbo glosses it as sweetness of scent.^[13] Modern dictionaries give the general sense “smell” and the narrower “pleasant smell, fragrance”, and the phrase odor de santidade, the same as cheiro de santidade, the reputation of a saint.^[2][14]

Timeline

• 13th century – odor and odores in the Cantigas de Santa Maria.^[3][2]
• 1344 – the Crónica Geral uses odor and olor.^[3]
• 14th century – the spelling odóór; the Trasladação de S. Nicolau.^[2][11]
• 15th century – the plural odorees.^[2]
• 1712 – Bluteau calls the word Latin and refers it to cheiro.^[12]
• 1789 – Morais defines it as smell, aroma.^[15]

Meanings

Noun

1. A smell, odour: the volatile emanation of bodies perceived by the sense of smell: um odor de queimado.^[2][14][1]
2. A pleasant smell; fragrance, aroma, perfume (fragrância).^[2][14][16]

Word family

• odorar
• odorante
• desodorar
• desodorante
• desodorizar

Related words

• olor
• cheiro
• inodoro
• odorífero
• Latin odor

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. odor
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Instituto da Lingua Galega, Dicionario de dicionarios do galego medieval (DDGM), ed. Ernesto González Seoane, Santiago de Compostela: Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, https://ilg.usc.gal/ddgm, p. s.v. odor
4. ^ Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. odor
5. ^ Academia das Ciências de Lisboa, Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, revised online edition (2023–) of the Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa Contemporânea (2001), https://dicionario.acad-ciencias.pt, p. s.v. odor
6. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. odor
7. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org, p. s.v. olor
8. ^ Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. olor
9. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. odeur
10. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
11. ^ a b Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. odor
12. ^ a b Bluteau, Raphael (1712–1728), Vocabulario portuguez e latino, 8 vols. + 2 supplement vols., Coimbra / Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. odor
13. ^ Viterbo, Joaquim de Santa Rosa de (1798–1799), Elucidario das palavras, termos e frases que em Portugal antiguamente se usárão, 2 vols., Lisboa: Simão Thaddeo Ferreira, p. 2, 181
14. ^ a b c Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. odor
15. ^ Silva, António de Morais (1789), Diccionario da lingua portugueza composto pelo padre D. Rafael Bluteau, reformado, e accrescentado, 2 vols., Lisboa: Simão Thaddeo Ferreira, p. 2, 128
16. ^ Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. odor