redolent

English

WOTD – 20 January 2008

From Middle English redolent (first attested in 1400), from Old French redolent, from Latin redolentem, present participle of redoleō (“I emit a scent”), from red- + oleō (“I smell”).

redolent (comparative more redolent, superlative most redolent)

Fragrant or aromatic; having a sweet scent.
Having the smell of the article in question.
- 1861, Francis Colburn Adams, An Outcast, ch. 32:
  His breath is already redolent of whiskey.
- 1922 February, James Joyce, “[[Episode 16]]”, in Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare & Co.; Sylvia Beach, OCLC 560090630; republished London: Published for the Egoist Press, London by John Rodker, Paris, October 1922, OCLC 2297483:
  Stephen, that is when the accosting figure came to close quarters, though he was not in an over sober state himself recognised Corley's breath redolent of rotten cornjuice.
(idiomatic) Suggestive or reminiscent.
- 1919, Ella Wheeler Wilcox, A vision:
  But forth from sweat-shops, tenement and prison
  Wailed minor protests, redolent with pain.
- 1926, H.P. Lovecraft, The Call of Cthulhu:
  He said that the geometry of the dream-place he saw was abnormal, non-Euclidean, and loathsomely redolent of spheres and dimensions apart from ours.

fragrant or aromatic

having a smell

suggestive or reminiscent

redolent

third-person plural present active indicative of redoleō : 'they smell' ( - intransitive - i.e. 'they emit / diffuse an odour' ).

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