Odorative

Part of speech: adjective

Definitions

1. Having a distinctive smell or relating to the sense of smell
2. Pertaining to scents or the ability to detect odors
3. Connected to odors or the sensory perception of smells

Etymology: "Odorative" is formed in English from Latin "odorare," "to make fragrant" or "to scent," itself from "odor," "smell." The suffix "-ative," from Latin "-ativus," marks a word as tending toward or having to do with an action, so "odorative" simply means relating to or producing smell. The word is a learned coinage rather than something that passed down through everyday speech. Its Latin ancestor "odorare" gave English a handful of related terms, and "odorative" belongs to that scholarly vocabulary, appearing in English dictionaries as a technical or literary adjective. Its use has stayed limited, mostly in writing about perfumes, scents, and the senses.

Synonyms: fragrant, scented, aromatic, perfumed, smelly

Antonyms: odorless, unscented, neutral, inodorous, bland