perfume

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   A liquid with a pleasant smell that people put on their skin.

   She bought a bottle of perfume at the airport.

2. 2
   noun

   A pleasant smell.

   The perfume of the roses filled the whole garden.

3. 3
   verb

   To give something a pleasant smell.

   Orange blossoms perfumed the warm evening air.

Simplified etymology

Perfume was originally stressed on its second syllable. It goes back to Latin per, meaning “thoroughly,” and fumare, with reference to the pleasant smell of incense, and is related to fumigate and Latin fumus, “smoke.”

Borrowed from Middle French parfum, perfum. Doublet of parfum.

Topics

External links

• Google Images
• Cambridge Dictionary
• Wiktionary