odoriferous, a.
(əʊdəˈrɪfərəs)
Also 5–6 odory-, 6–8 oderi-.
[f. L. odōrifer (f. odor, odōri- odour + -fer bearing) + -ous.]
1. That bears or diffuses scent or smell; odorous; fragrant; rarely, of an unpleasant odour.
| c 1425 Lydg. Assembly of Gods 336 Of sauerys odoryferous was her sustynaunce. 1497 Bp. Alcock Mons Perfect. A ij b/2 The odoriferous & swete vyolettes of all obedyence. a 1548 Hall Chron., Hen. VII, 54 What should I speke of the oderiferous skarlettes, the fyne veluet [etc.]. 1602 Warner Alb. Eng. xi. lxi. (1612) 268 If odorifrous sents he smelt, he fathers them on her. 1749 G. Lavington Enthus. Meth. & Papists 11 (1754) 67 Her dead Body was surprizingly beautiful and odoriferous..and it remains odorous and uncorrupt to this Day. 1822 Scott Nigel iii, Free air, impregnated, however, with the odoriferous fumes of the articles in which the ship-chandler dealt. 1843 Prescott Mexico (1850) I. 129 The courts [were] strewed with odoriferous herbs and flowers. 1887 Pall Mall G. 2 Nov. 3/1 When..busy wharves take the place of the present muddy and odoriferous foreshore. |
2. fig. Pleasing, sweet; ‘fragrant’.
| 1577 Hellowes Gueuara's Fam. Ep. 375 That which was in your lawe, cleare, neate, precious, and odoriferous. 1597 J. Payne Royal Exch. 11 Whose prayers and prayses is..oderiferouse..before the lorde. |
Hence odoˈriferously adv., in an odoriferous manner; with scent or fragrance; fragrantly. odoˈriferousness, fragrance.
| 1599 A. M. tr. Gabelhouer's Bk. Physicke 42/1 Yet ther may heervnto be addede, a little Muscke, for odoriferousnes. 1601 Chester Love's Mart. lix, It makes them smell so odoriferously. a 1674 Milton Hist. Mosc. iii. Wks. (1851) 487 Thir Markets smell odoriferously with Spices. 1855 H. Spencer Princ. Psychol. (1872) II. vi. xi. 144 The atomic expulsion from which odoriferousness results, is one of the reactions consequent on the reception of heat. 1886 Ruskin Præterita I. ix. 283 The coffee generally roasting odoriferously in the street. |