Etymograph

English

relish

Relish comes from English release ‘(obsolete) odour, scent’, and goes back to Middle English reles.

  1. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500reles1
  2. English1500–presentrelease1‘(obsolete) odour, scent’
  3. Englishearliest quotation 1580relish1

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, English relish
  2. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1580, Iohn Lyly [i.e., Euphues to Him that was His Philautus: “[G]ood ſalt cannot relyſh in ſo vnſauory a mouth,…”.

Earlier history uncertain. See Wiktionary.

Lineage

  1. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500relesWiktionary, English relish
  2. English1500–presentreleaseWiktionary, English relish‘(obsolete) odour, scent’
  3. Englishearliest quotation 1580relishWiktionary, English relish. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1580, Iohn Lyly [i.e., Euphues to Him that was His Philautus: “[G]ood ſalt cannot relyſh in ſo vnſauory a mouth,…”

The story

The noun is a variant of release (‘(obsolete) odour, scent’), from Middle English reles, relese (‘odour, scent; taste; efficacy, power’), probably from Anglo-Norman reles, relais, or Old French reles, relais (‘that which is left behind, remainder, residue’), from relaisser, relaschier (‘to liberate, release; to relax’) (modern French relâcher), from Latin relaxāre, the present active infinitive of relaxō (‘to stretch out or widen again, loosen, slacken; (figurative) to ease, relax’), from re- (prefix meaning ‘again; back, backwards’) + laxō (‘to release, undo; to relax’) (from laxus (‘spacious, wide; loose, slack’) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *(s)leg- (‘to slacken; to tire out’)) + -ō (suffix forming regular first-conjugation verbs)).

Full etymology on Wiktionary

Linked words

through Proto-Indo-European *(s)leg- ‘to tire out, slacken’

languid, languish, slake

through Latin laxus ‘loose, slack, free’

relax, lax, leash, laxity, 4 more

through Latin laxō ‘to extend’

release, lease, 4 more

through Latin relaxō ‘to stretch out or widen again’

relaxation

Another origin of relish

  1. Middle Frenchc. 1400–1600relaisuncertain
  2. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500relese‘projection of a wall’
  3. Englishtodayrelish

The noun is derived from Late Middle English relese (‘projection of a wall’), probably from Middle French relais or Old French relais (‘projection of masonry at the base of a wall’), a specific use of reles, relais (‘that which is left behind, remainder, residue’): see further at etymology 1. The verb is derived from the noun.

Another origin of relish

  1. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500reles
  2. English1500–presentrelease‘(obsolete) odour, scent’uncertain
  3. Englishtodayrelish

The verb is probably derived from the noun.

Today it means

noun Flavour or taste; (countable) an instance of this.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “relish”. 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 / Middle English reles / relish

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