Where does odoriferous come from?

The first records of odoriferous in English come from the 1400s. It comes from the Medieval Latin odōriferus and is composed of the root odor and the suffix -ferous, meaning “bearing or producing” (as seen in coniferous).

For much of its history, odoriferous was used to describe nicely smelling things, like flowers and spices. It has since come to be used in descriptions of any strong smell, but mostly ones that are very bad. Rotten eggs and skunk spray are infamously odoriferous, for example. Sometimes, the meaning is extended to describe something that one considers bad (much like saying that stinks to mean that’s terrible).

Odoriferous is typically used in the same way as the shorter (but less-fun-to-say) odorous. Both are sometimes confused with the adjective odious, which means “hateful,” “offensive,” or “disgusting” (though something that’s odoriferous could also be described as odious).