odor

See also: odôr and odør

English

Alternative forms

• odour

Etymology

From Middle English odour, borrowed from Anglo-Norman odour, from Old French odor, from Latin odor.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈəʊ.də/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈoʊ.dɚ/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -əʊdə(r)
• Homophone: oater (some dialects)

Noun

odor (countable and uncountable, plural odors) (American spelling)

1. Any smell, whether fragrant or offensive; scent; perfume.
   • 1895, H. G. Wells, The Time Machine Chapter X

     Now, I still think that for this box of matches to have escaped the wear of time for immemorial years was a strange, and for me, a most fortunate thing. Yet oddly enough I found here a far more unlikely substance, and that was camphor. I found it in a sealed jar, that, by chance, I supposed had been really hermetically sealed. I fancied at first the stuff was paraffin wax, and smashed the jar accordingly. But the odour of camphor was unmistakable.

2. (figuratively) A strong, pervasive quality.
3. (figuratively, uncountable) Esteem; repute.
4. (now rare) Something which produces a scent; incense, a perfume.
   • 1526, William Tyndale, trans. Bible, Luke XXIV:

     On the morow after the saboth, erly in the mornynge, they cam vnto the toumbe and brought the odoures whych they had prepared, and other wemen wyth them.

Usage notes

In the United States, the term odor often has a negative connotation. Preferred terms for a pleasant odor are "fragrance", "scent", and "aroma".

Synonyms

• (any smell): perfume, scent
• (esteem): esteem, repute
• See also Thesaurus:smell

Derived terms

• in bad odor
• odorous
• odorously
• odorousness

Translations

any smell, whether fragrant or offensive; scent; perfume

• Arabic: رَائِحَة‎ f (rāʾiḥa), (plural) رَوَائِح‎ f pl (rawāʾiḥ), رِيحَة‎ f (rīḥa)
• Armenian: հոտ (hy) (hot)
• Azerbaijani: qoxu (az)
• Bashkir: еҫ (yeθ)
• Basque: usain
• Belarusian: пах m (pax)
• Bengali: গন্ধ (bn) (gôndh)
• Brunei Malay: bau
• Bulgarian: миризма (bg) f (mirizma)
• Cherokee: ᎦᏩᏒᎩ (gawasvgi)
• Chinese:

  Cantonese: 氣味, 气味 (hei³ mei⁶)

  Mandarin: 氣味 (zh), 气味 (zh) (qìwèi)

  Min Nan: 氣味 (zh-min-nan), 气味 (khì-bī)

• Czech: vůně (cs) f
• Dutch: reuk (nl) f
• Egyptian: (sṯ)
• Esperanto: odoro (eo)
• Finnish: tuoksu (fi), haju (fi)
• French: odeur (fr) f
• Georgian: სუნი (suni)
• German: Geruch (de) m
• Greek: οσμή (el) f (osmí), μυρωδιά (el) f (myrodiá)

  Ancient: ὀσμή f (osmḗ)

• Hebrew: ריח‎ (he) m (réakh)
• Hindi: गंध (hi) f (gandh)
• Hungarian: szag (hu)
• Icelandic: lykt (is) f
• Irish: tuth f

• Italian: odore (it) m
• Japanese: 匂い (ja) (におい, nioi)
• Kazakh: иіс (kk) (ïis)
• Korean: 냄새 (ko) (naemsae)
• Latin: odor m
• Macedonian: ми́рис m (míris), ми́ризба f (mírizba)
• Malay: bau
• Mongolian: анхилга (mn) (anhilga), үнэр (mn) (üner)
• Neapolitan: addore m
• Pashto: بوى‎ m (buy)
• Persian: بو‎ (fa) (bu)
• Polish: zapach (pl) m
• Portuguese: odor (pt) m
• Romanian: mireasmă (ro) f, miros (ro) n
• Russian: за́пах (ru) m (zápax)
• Sanskrit: गन्ध (sa) m (gandha)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: ми̏рӣс m

  Roman: mȉrīs (sh) m

• Slovak: vôňa f
• Slovene: vonj (sl) f
• Spanish: olor (es) m
• Swedish: lukt (sv) c, odör (sv) c
• Thai: กลิ่น (th) (glìn)
• Turkish: koku (tr), rayiha (tr)
• Ukrainian: за́пах m (zápax)
• Vietnamese: mùi (vi), hơi (vi)
• Yiddish: גערוך‎ (gerukh), ריח‎ (rikh)

strong, pervasive quality

• Cherokee: ᎦᏩᏒᎩ (gawasvgi)
• Finnish: ominaispiirre (fi)

• Norwegian: odør m, stank m, lukt (no)

esteem, repute

• Finnish: maine (fi)

See also

• aroma

Anagrams

• Rood, door, ordo, rood

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Italian

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /oˈdor/, [oˈd̪or̺]
• Hyphenation: o‧dór

Noun

odor m (invariable)

1. Apocopic form of odore

Anagrams

• doro, d'oro, dorò, ordo, rodo, rodò

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Latin

Alternative forms

• odōs

Etymology

Via rhotacism from Old Latin odōs (plural: odōses), from Proto-Indo-European *h₃ed-.

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /ˈo.dor/, [ˈɔ.d̪ɔr]
• (Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈo.dor/, [ˈɔː.d̪ɔr]

Noun

odor m (genitive odōris); third declension

1. A smell, perfume, stench.
2. (figuratively) Inkling, suggestion.

Declension

Third-declension noun.

Case	Singular	Plural
Nominative	odor	odōrēs
Genitive	odōris	odōrum
Dative	odōrī	odōribus
Accusative	odōrem	odōrēs
Ablative	odōre	odōribus
Vocative	odor	odōrēs

Derived terms

• odōrō
• odōror

Descendants

• Asturian: golor
• Catalan: olor
• Czech: odér
• Esperanto: odoro
  • Ido: odoro
• Friulian: odôr, nulôr
• Italian: odore
• Occitan: odor, olor
• Old French: odor
  • Anglo-Norman: odour
    • Middle English: odour
      • English: odor, odour
  • French: odeur
• Portuguese: odor
• Romanian: urdoare
• Romansch: odur, udur, odour
• Sicilian: oluri, uduri
• Spanish: olor
• Swedish: odör
• Venetian: odor, udor

References

• odor in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• odor in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• odor in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition, 1883–1887)
• odor in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire Illustré Latin-Français, Hachette
• Carl Meissner; Henry William Auden (1894) Latin Phrase-Book‎^[1], London: Macmillan and Co.
  • with incense and perfumes: ture et odoribus incensis
    
  • the perfume exhaled by flowers: odores, qui efflantur e floribus
    
  • there are whispers of the appointment of a dictator: non nullus odor est dictaturae (Att. 4. 18)
    

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Middle English

Noun

odor

1. Alternative form of odour

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Portuguese

Etymology

From Old Portuguese odor (displacing collateral form olor), from Latin odor, odōris, from Old Latin odōs, from Proto-Indo-European *h₃ed- (“to smell, stink”).

Pronunciation

• (Portugal) IPA^(key): /ɔ.ˈðoɾ/, /o.ˈðoɾ/, /u.ˈðoɾ/
• Hyphenation: o‧dor

Noun

odor m (plural odores)

1. odour; smell

Synonyms

• cheiro, aroma

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Venetian

Alternative forms

• udor

Etymology

From Latin odor, odōrem. Compare Italian odore.

Noun

odor m (plural odori) or odor m (plural oduri)

1. smell, stink