Redolence comes from redolent + -ence. Redolent is from Latin redolentem, present participle of redolere ('to emit a scent'), from red- ('back, again') + olere ('to give off a smell'). The historical chain includes Latin red-, Latin redolere, and Latin olere. Older glosses in the chain include "to emit a scent", "back, again", and "to give off a smell", which help explain the semantic range of the modern word. Morphologically, redolence is best read as compound, suffixal formation, and borrowing, yielding an English noun shaped by both form history and later usage. In current English it functions as a noun, with the sense "a pleasant fragrance; the quality of being strongly evocative". related forms include redolent and olfactory. The result is an English noun whose etymology preserves the older forms while supporting the word's specialized modern meaning.