Redolence

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /ˈɹɛd.ə.ləns/

Definitions

1. A sweet or pleasant smell, or the quality of being strongly reminiscent or suggestive of something
2. a fragrant aroma or the quality of being evocative and suggestive of something else
3. the presence of a sweet smell or the characteristic of evoking memories and associations with other things

Etymology: The word comes from Latin "redolere," built from "re-," meaning "again" or "intensely," and "olere," "to smell." "Olere" is also the source of "odor," so the two English words are close cousins. "Redolere" simply meant to give off a smell, and the Latin verb did not necessarily describe a pleasant one. The notion of a sweet or agreeable fragrance is a later narrowing in English. The noun grew out of the related adjective "redolent," which first described something emitting a scent and later came to mean "suggestive of" or "full of" something. That figurative sense gave the noun a second life, so that a place or object can have a redolence of memory or history without anything physically smelling at all.

Synonyms: fragrance, scent, aroma, odor, perfume

Antonyms: stench, foulness, odorlessness, malodor, reek