English
flavor
Flavor comes from Old French flaor, from Vulgar Latin *flātor ‘flautist’, and ultimately from Latin flō ‘to breathe, blow’.
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEflō‘to breathe, blow’
- Vulgar Latinc. 100–700 CE*flātor‘flautist’reconstructed
- Old Frenchc. 842–1400flaor
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500flavour‘odour’
- Englishearliest quotation 1859flavor
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor
Earlier history uncertain.
Lineage
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEflō‘to breathe, blow’
- Vulgar Latinc. 100–700 CE*flātor‘flautist’reconstructed
- Old Frenchc. 842–1400flaor
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500flavour‘odour’
- Englishearliest quotation 1859flavor
Earliest quotation: 1859, Charles Dickens, The Mortals in the House: “It was damp, it was not free from dry…”
The story
From Middle English flavour meaning “smell, odour”, usually pleasing, borrowed from Old French flaour (‘smell, odour’) (cfr.
Linked words
through Proto-Indo-European *bʰleh₁-
blow, blast, bliss, bladder, fluent, flux, feeble, confluence, fluency, blithely, fluvial, blare, bleat, blather, blasé, 45 more
through Latin flō ‘to breathe, blow’
Today it means
noun The quality produced by the sensation of taste or, especially, of taste and smell in combined effect.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / Latin flō / flavor