Etymograph

English

flavor

Flavor comes from Old French flaor, from Vulgar Latin *flātor ‘flautist’, and perhaps ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *bʰleh₁-.

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*bʰleh₁-1uncertain
  2. Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*flāō1uncertain
  3. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEflō1‘to breathe, blow’
  4. Vulgar Latinc. 100–700 CE*flātor1‘flautist’reconstructed
  5. Old Frenchc. 842–1400flaor1
  6. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500flavour1‘odour’
  7. Englishearliest quotation 1859flavor1

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, English flavor
  2. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1859, Charles Dickens, The Mortals in the House: “It was damp, it was not free from dry…”.

Lineage

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*bʰleh₁-Wiktionary, English flavoruncertain
  2. Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*flāōWiktionary, English flavoruncertain
  3. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEflōWiktionary, English flavor‘to breathe, blow’
  4. Vulgar Latinc. 100–700 CE*flātorWiktionary, English flavor‘flautist’reconstructed
  5. Old Frenchc. 842–1400flaorWiktionary, English flavor
  6. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500flavourWiktionary, English flavor‘odour’
  7. Englishearliest quotation 1859flavorWiktionary, English flavor. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 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.

Full etymology on Wiktionary

Linked words

through Proto-Indo-European *bʰleh₁-

blow, blast, bliss, bladder, fluent, flux, feeble, confluence, fluency, blithely, fluvial, blare, bleat, blather, 45 more

through Latin flō ‘to breathe, blow’

inflation, inflate, flatulence, conflate, 18 more

Today it means

noun The quality produced by the sensation of taste or, especially, of taste and smell in combined effect.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “flavor”. By Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0, via kaikki.org (dump of Oct 3 2026); text adapted and restructured. Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word. License.

Etymograph / Proto-Indo-European *bʰleh₁- / flavor

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