English
odorometer
Odorometer comes from Latin odor ‘a smell, perfume, stench’, and goes back to Proto-Indo-European *h₃ed-.
- Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*h₃ed-1‘to smell’reconstructed
- Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*h₃édōs1reconstructedderived within Proto-Indo-European
- Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*odōs1reconstructed
- Old Latinc. 700–75 BCEodōs1
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEodor2‘a smell, perfume, stench’
- Englishearliest quotation 1954odorometer2
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor
- 1 Wiktionary, Latin odor
- 2 Wiktionary, English odorometer
- Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1954, Proceedings - American Gas Association: “Most of the odorometers now in use have been…”.
Lineage
- Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*h₃ed-Wiktionary, Latin odor‘to smell’reconstructed
- Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*h₃édōsWiktionary, Latin odorreconstructedderived within Proto-Indo-European
- Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*odōsWiktionary, Latin odorreconstructed
- Old Latinc. 700–75 BCEodōsWiktionary, Latin odor
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEodorWiktionary, English odorometer‘a smell, perfume, stench’
- Englishearliest quotation 1954odorometerWiktionary, English odorometer. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1954, Proceedings - American Gas Association: “Most of the odorometers now in use have been…”
Linked words
through Proto-Indo-European *h₃ed- ‘to smell’
dental, tooth, dent, zinc, annoy, ozone, egregious, tusk, dens, odious, dancy, redolent, osmium, odium, 67 more
through Latin odor ‘a smell, perfume, stench’
Today it means
noun A device used to measure the intensity of a smell
Sources
Sources: Wiktionary, “odorometer”; the older steps come from the Wiktionary entry for Latin odor. 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 *h₃ed- / odorometer