scentとは意味・読み方・使い方

語源

From c.1400, from Middle English sent (noun) and senten (verb), from Old French sentir (“to feel, perceive, smell”), from Old French sentire "to feel, perceive, sense", from Latin sentīre, present active infinitive of sentiō. Ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *sent- (“to feel”), and thus related to Dutch zin (“sense, meaning”), German Sinn (“sense”), Low German Sinn (“sense”), Luxembourgish Sënn (“sense, perception”), Saterland Frisian Sin (“sense”), West Frisian sin (“sense”). The -c- appeared in the 17th century, possibly by influence of ascent, descent, etc., or by influence of science.

発音

• enPR: sĕnt, IPA^(key): /sɛnt/
• 韻: -ɛnt
• 異形同音異義語: cent, sent

名詞

scent (countable かつ uncountable, 複数形 scents)

1. A distinctive smell.

   Synonyms: aroma, bouquet, fragrance, nosegay, odor, perfume, redolence, smell

   the scent of flowers / of a skunk

   to give off / release / exude a scent

   to breathe in / inhale a scent

   • 1667, John Milton, Paradise Lost, Book 8, lines 586-588,^[1]

     hunger and thirst at once, / Powerful perswaders, quick’nd at the scent / Of that alluring fruit,

   • 1855, Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass, Brooklyn, p. 29,^[2]

     The scent of these arm-pits is aroma finer than prayer,

   • 1973, Mary Stewart, The Hollow Hills, New York: William Morrow, Book 3, p. 357,^[3]

     Behind me the forest stood wrapped in mist, its scents still sleeping.

   • 2014, Yvonne Adhiambo Owuor, Dust, London: Granta Books, Chapter 32, p. 289,^[4]

     The air is thick with the unexpected scent of rain.

2. A smell left by an animal that may be used for tracing.

   The dogs picked up / caught the scent but then quickly lost it.

   • c. 1590–1592, William Shakespeare, “The Taming of the Shrew”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, [Act PROLOGUE, (please specify the scene number in lowercase Roman numerals)]:

     He […] twice to-day pick’d out the dullest scent; / Trust me, I take him for the better dog.

   • 1817 December 31 (indicated as 1818), [Walter Scott], chapter 7, in Rob Roy. […], volume (please specify |volume=I, II, または III), Edinburgh: […] James Ballantyne and Co. for Archibald Constable and Co. […]; London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, OCLC 82790126, page 151:

     But see how the dogs puzzle about there. Come, Mr Frank, the scent’s cold;

3. The sense of smell.

   Synonym: olfaction

   I believe the bloodhound has the best scent of all dogs.

   • 1567, Arthur Golding (translator), The .XV. Bookes of P. Ouidius Naso, entytuled Metamorphosis, London: William Seres, Books 3, p. 33,^[5]

     His houndes espyde him where he was, and Blacksoote first of all

     And Stalker speciall good of sent began aloud to call.

   • 1759, Samuel Johnson, The History of Rasselas, Prince of Abissinia, Philadelphia: Robert Bell, 1768, Chapter 29, p. 113,^[6]

     No man can taste the fruits of autumn while he is delighting his scent with the flowers of the spring:

   • 1818, [Mary Shelley], chapter 5, in Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus. […], volume (please specify |volume=I, II, または III), London: […] [Macdonald and Son] for Lackington, Hughes, Harding, Mavor, & Jones, OCLC 830979744, page 76:

     innumerable flowers, sweet to the scent and the eyes

   • 1855, Frederick Douglass, My Bondage and My Freedom, New York: Miller, Orton & Mulligan, Chapter 21, p. 322,^[7]

     Keen is the scent of the slaveholder; like the fangs of the rattlesnake, his malice retains its poison long; and, although it is now nearly seventeen years since I made my escape, it is well to be careful, in dealing with the circumstances relating to it.

4. (chiefly uncountable) A substance (usually liquid) created to provide a pleasant smell.

   Synonyms: aftershave, cologne, eau de toilette, perfume, toilet water

   a scent shop; a scent bazaar

   • 1900, Joseph Conrad, Lord Jim, Edinburgh: William Blackwood, Chapter 6, p. 66,^[8]

     He was drowned in scent—fairly stunk with it, Captain Marlow.

   • 1924, E. M. Forster, A Passage to India, London: Edward Arnold, Part 2, Chapter 22, p. 197,^[9]

     He receives deputations from the bazaar, and they all chew betel nut and smear one another’s hands with scent.

   • 1955, C. S. Lewis, The Magician’s Nephew, New York: HarperCollins, 2010, Chapter 6,

     He took a clean handkerchief (a lovely one such as you couldn’t buy today) out of the little left-hand drawer and put a few drops of scent on it.

   • 2014, Damon Galgut, Arctic Summer, McClelland & Stewart, Chapter 6, p. 285,^[10]

     He went tripping away under a canvas umbrella, trailing the smell of cheap scent.

5. (figuratively) Any trail or trace that can be followed to find something or someone, such as the paper left behind in a paperchase.

   The minister's off-hand remark put journalists on the scent of a cover-up.

   The tip put the detectives on a false / the wrong scent.

   to pick up a scent / get scent of something

   (discover one of a series of clues in the trail of evidence)

   to throw / put someone off the scent

   (distract them from following the trail of evidence)

   • 1749, Henry Fielding, chapter 5, in The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, volume (please specify |volume=I to VI), London: A[ndrew] Millar […], OCLC 928184292, book 2, page 71:

     Mrs. Wilkins having […] by Accident, gotten a true Scent of the above Story […] failed not to satisfy herself thoroughly of all the Particulars,

   • 1792, Mary Wollstonecraft, chapter 13, in A Vindication of the Rights of Woman‎^[11]:

     Before marriage it is their business to please men; and after, with a few exceptions, they follow the same scent with all the persevering pertinacity of instinct.

   • 1926, Nevil Shute, Marazan, London: Cassell, Chapter 3,^[12]

     Gullivant had to be firmly identified with Compton, the convict, in such a way as to bring the police hot on the scent.

6. (obsolete) Sense, perception.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Qveene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for VVilliam Ponsonbie, OCLC 960102938, book 1, canto 1, page 15:

     A fit false dreame, that can delude the sleepers sent.

使用する際の注意点

• Although historically the term was applied indifferently to odours of any kind, it is now more often used to refer to pleasant ones (like the terms aroma かつ fragrance), while odour and smell are more often used for unpleasant ones.

参考

• olfactory

派生語

動詞

scent (三人称単数 現在形 scents, 現在分詞 scenting, 過去形および過去分詞形 scented)

1. (transitive) To detect the scent of; to discern by the sense of smell.

   Synonym: smell

   The hounds scented the fox in the woods.

   • c. 1599–1602, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, [Act I, scene v]:

     methinks I scent the morning air.

   • 1860, Wilkie Collins, The Woman in White, London: Sampson Low, Son, & Co., Volume 3, p. 334,^[13]

     if she had scented danger in the air, as a dog scents the presence of some creature unseen, her alarm could not have displayed itself more suddenly

   • 1988, Anne Tyler, Breathing Lessons, Penguin, Part 3, Chapter 2, p. 279,^[14]

     Why, Maggie could scent a fire before it started, almost.

2. (transitive, intransitive) To inhale in order to detect the scent of (something).

   Synonyms: sniff, smell

   • 1899, W. E. B. Du Bois, “A Negro Schoolmaster in the New South” in The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 83, p. 103,^[15]

     I paused to scent the breeze as I entered the valley.

   • 1903, Jack London, The Call of the Wild, New York: Macmillan, Chapter 7, p. 201,^[16]

     One night he sprang from sleep with a start, eager-eyed, nostrils quivering and scenting,

3. (transitive, figuratively) To have a suspicion of; to detect the possibility of (something).

   Synonyms: detect, discern, perceive, sense

   I scented trouble when I saw them running down the hill towards me.

   • 1919, Henry Blake Fuller, Bertram Cope’s Year, Chicago: R.F. Seymour, Chapter 11, p. 105,^[17]

     Cope seemed to scent a challenge and accepted it.

   • 1978, Lawrence Durrell, Livia, London: Faber and Faber, Chapter 1, p. 48,^[18]

     A mysterious scene to me then—yet I scented that there was something momentous about it, though I could not tell what.

4. (transitive) To impart an odour to, to cause to have a particular smell.

   Synonym: perfume

   Scent the air with burning sage before you begin your meditation.

   • 1685, John Dryden, “The Epithalamium of Helen and Menelaus” in Sylvæ, or, The Second Part of Poetical Miscellanies, London: Jacob Tonson, p. 105,^[19]

     Balm, from a Silver box distill’d around, / Shall all bedew the roots and scent the sacred ground;

   • 1796, John Gabriel Stedman, Narrative of a Five Years’ Expedition, London: J. Johnson & J. Edwards, Volume 2, Chapter 25, p. 235,^[20]

     [Vanilla pods] have a fat rich aromatic taste, and most agreeable flavour; on which account they are used to scent the chocolate.

   • 1860 December – 1861 August, Charles Dickens, chapter VII, in Great Expectations […], volume III, London: Chapman and Hall, […], published October 1861, OCLC 3359935, page 103:

     […] the air […] was scented, not disagreeably, by the chips and shavings of the long-shore boat-builders, and mast oar and block makers.

   • 1999, Ahdaf Soueif, The Map of Love, London: Bloomsbury, Chapter 18, p. 300,^[21]

     You adorn yourself and scent yourself and sit with him in a comfortable way—

5. (intransitive, obsolete) To have a smell; (比喩的に) to give an impression (of something).

   Synonym: smell

   • 1601, C[aius] Plinius Secundus [i.e., Pliny the Elder], “[Book XXXV.] 15.”, in Philemon Holland, transl., The Historie of the VVorld. Commonly Called, The Natvrall Historie of C. Plinivs Secvndus. […], 2nd tome, London: […] Adam Islip, published 1635, OCLC 1180792622, page 557:

     Thunderbolts & lightnings […] do sent strongly of brimstone:

   • 1647, John Fletcher and Philip Massinger, The False One, Act III, Scene 2, in Fifty Comedies and Tragedies, London: John Martyn et al., p. 325,^[22]

     I smell him now: fie, how the Knave perfumes him, / How strong he scents of Traitor?

   • 1647, Thomas Fuller, The Cause and Cure of a Wounded Conscience, London: John Williams, Dialogue 21, p. 154,^[23]

     though praying for a wounded Conscience may seemingly scent of pretended humility, it doth really and rankly savour of pride,

6. To hunt animals by means of the sense of smell.

派生語