savour
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈseɪvə/
ipa: /ˈseɪvəɹ/
homophone: saver
rhymes: -eɪvə(ɹ)
Forms: form: savours
form: savor
Etymology: From Middle English savour, from Anglo-Norman saveur, savor, savour, and Old French saveur, savor, savour (modern French saveur), from Latin sapor, from sapiō (“to taste of (something); to have a flavour”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *seh₁p-, *sep- (“to taste; to try out”)) + -or (suffix forming third-declension masculine abstract nouns). Doublet of sapor.
Senses: examples: text: And Noe [Noah] made an aulter vnto the LORDE⸝ and toke of all maner of clene beaſtes and all maner of clene foules⸝ and offred ſacrifyce vppon the aulter. And the LORDE ſmellyd a ſwete ſavoure and ſayd in his hert: I wyll henceforth no more curſe the erth for mannes ſake⸝ […]
ref: 1530 January 27 (Gregorian calendar), W[illiam] T[yndale], transl., [The Pentateuch] (Tyndale Bible), Malborow [Marburg], Hesse: […] Hans Luft [actually Antwerp: Johan Hoochstraten], →OCLC, Genesis viij:[20], folio x, verso:
text: Matr[euis]. Gurney, I vvonder the king dies not, / Being in a vault vp to the knees in vvater, / To vvhich the channels of the caſtell runne, / […] / Gurn[ey]. And ſo do I, Matreuis: yeſternight / I opened but the doore to throvv him meate, / And I vvas almoſt ſtifeled vvith the ſauor.
ref: 1594, Christopher Marlow[e], The Troublesome Raigne and Lamentable Death of Edward the Second, King of England: […], London: […] [Eliot’s Court Press] for Henry Bell, […], published 1622, →OCLC, [Act V], signature [L3], recto:
text: Then Melfoil beat, and Honey-ſuckles pound, / VVith theſe alluring Savours ſtrevv the Ground; […]
ref: 1697, Virgil, “The Fourth Book of the Georgics”, in John Dryden, transl., The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC, page 125, lines 87–88:
text: [M]ethought I smelled the agreeable savour of roast beef; […]
ref: 1710 April 1 (Gregorian calendar), Isaac Bickerstaff [et al., pseudonyms; Richard Steele et al.], “Tuesday, March 21, 1709–10”, in The Tatler, number 148; republished in [Richard Steele], editor, The Tatler, […], London stereotype edition, volume II, London: I. Walker and Co.; […], 1822, →OCLC, page 355:
text: He held out to me a bowl of steaming broth, that filled the room with a savour sweeter, ten thousand times, to me than every rose and lily of the world; yet would not let me drink it at a gulp, but made me sip it with a spoon like any baby.
ref: [1898], J[ohn] Meade Falkner, “In the Vault”, in Moonfleet, London; Toronto, Ont.: Jonathan Cape, published 1934, →OCLC, pages 62–63:
glosses: An aroma or smell.
examples: text: [B]y our Sences which conceiue al Colours, Sounds, Sents, Sauors, and Féelings; wée may ſee, heare, ſmell, taſt, and feele, that one ſelfſame workman made both the Sences, and the things that are ſubiect to the Sences.
ref: 1587, Philip of Mornay [i.e., Philippe de Mornay], “That there is a God, and that All Men Agree in the Godhead”, in Philip Sidney, Arthur Golding, transl., A Woorke Concerning the Trewnesse of the Christian Religion, […], London: […] [John Charlewood and] George Robinson for Thomas Cadman, […], →OCLC, page 7:
text: Cyders differ one from another eſpecially in colour and ſauour or reliſh.
ref: 1606, Charles Steuens [i.e., Charles Estienne]; John Liebault [i.e., Jean Liébault], “A Brief Discourse of Making of Drinkes of the Iuices of Fruits”, in Richard Surflet, transl., Maison Rustique, or The Countrey Farme: […], London: […] Arnold Hatfield for Iohn Norton and Iohn Bill, →OCLC, book III (The Orchard, or Greene Plot), page 533:
text: A Table richly ſpred, in regal mode, / VVith diſhes pill'd, and meats of nobleſt ſort / And ſavour, […]
ref: 1671, John Milton, “The Second Book”, in Paradise Regain’d. A Poem. In IV Books. To which is Added, Samson Agonistes, London: […] J[ohn] M[acock] for John Starkey […], →OCLC, page 46, lines 840–842:
text: Viands of various kinds allure the taſte / Of choiceſt ſort and ſavour; rich repaſt!
ref: 1726, Homer, “Book XV”, in [Alexander Pope], transl., The Odyssey of Homer. […], volume IV, London: […] Bernard Lintot, →OCLC, page 19, lines 154–155:
text: [page 848] Taste, gives knowledge of the savors of material things. […] [page 849] The primary facts of knowledge, form, color, sound, weight, savor, odor, etc., can be obtained only by the direct action of material things upon the senses and cannot be taught from books.
ref: 1896 March 16, Charles R[ufus] Skinner, “[Exhibit No. 16: Teachers’ Training Classes.] Regulations for Teachers’ Training Classes.”, in Documents of the Assembly of the State of New York, One Hundred and Twentieth Session, volume XVII, number 71, part II, Albany; New York, N.Y.: Wynkoop Hallenbeck Crawford Co., state printers, published 1897, →OCLC, section XIII (Syllabus), pages 848 and 849:
text: Little disappointed, then, she turned attention to "Chat of the Social World," gossip which exercised potent fascination upon the girl's intelligence. She devoured with more avidity than she had her food those pretentiously phrased chronicles of the snobocracy—[…]—distilling therefrom an acid envy that robbed her napoleon [a millefeuille pastry] of all its savour.
ref: 1915, Louis Joseph Vance, “Anarchy”, in Nobody, New York, N.Y.: George H[enry] Doran Company, →OCLC, pages 18–19:
glosses: The quality which the sense of taste detects; also (countable), a specific flavour or taste, especially one different from the predominant one.
examples: text: Ye are the ſalte of the earth: but if the ſalte haue loſt his ſauour, vvherevvith ſhal it be ſalted? It is thenceforthe good for nothing, but to be caſt out, & to be troden vnder fote of men.
ref: 1560, [William Whittingham et al., transl.], The Bible and Holy Scriptures Conteyned in the Olde and Newe Testament. […] (the Geneva Bible), Geneva: […] Rouland Hall, →OCLC, S. Matthewe V:13, folio 3, verso, column 2:
text: His houſe is as empty of Religion, as the vvhite of an Egg is of ſavour.
ref: 1678, John Bunyan, The Pilgrim’s Progress from This World, to That which is to Come: […], London: […] Nath[aniel] Ponder […], →OCLC, page 106:
text: "I have thought till now," she said, "that the Tower of Tillietudlem might have been a place of succour to those that are ready to perish, even if they were na sae deserving as they should have been—but I see auld fruit has little savour—our suffering and our services have been of an ancient date."
ref: 1816, Jedadiah Cleishbotham [pseudonym; Walter Scott], chapter XIII, in Tales of My Landlord, […], volume II (Old Mortality), Edinburgh: […] [James Ballantyne and Co.] for William Blackwood, […]; London: John Murray, […], →OCLC, page 338:
text: [T]he lads felt that when no more tales could be told of the king of Maremma, savour would be gone out of the goatsflesh roasted in the charcoal in the woods, and the wineflask passed round when the last of the long furrows had been turned across the plains.
ref: 1882, Ouida [pseudonym; Maria Louise Ramé], chapter I, in In Maremma […], volume I, London: Chatto & Windus, […], →OCLC, pages 12–13:
glosses: The quality which the sense of taste detects; also (countable), a specific flavour or taste, especially one different from the predominant one.
An appealing or appetizing flavour, especially one which is savoury or strong.
raw_tags: in the negative
examples: text: [W]hy is not my life a continual Joy? and the ſavor of Heaven perpetually upon my ſpirit?
ref: 1649, Richard Baxter, “What Affections Must be Acted, and by what Considerations and Obje[c]ts, and in what Order”, in The Saints Everlasting Rest: Or, A Treatise of the Blessed State of the Saints in Their Enjoyment of God in Glory. […], London: […] Rob[ert] White, for Thomas Underhil and Francis Tyton, […], →OCLC, part IV (Containing a Directory for the Getting and Keeping of the Heart in Heaven: […]), section 9, paragraph 5, page 747:
glosses: A distinctive sensation like a flavour or taste, or an aroma or smell.
examples: text: Come ſir, this admiration is much of the ſauour of other your nevv prankes, I doe beſeech you vnderſtand my purpoſes aright, […]
ref: c. 1603–1606 (date written), [William Shakespeare], […] His True Chronicle Historie of the Life and Death of King Lear and His Three Daughters. […] (First Quarto), London: […] Nathaniel Butter, […], published 1608, →OCLC, [Act I, scene iv], signature D, verso:
synonyms: tinge
glosses: A particular quality, especially a small amount of it; a hint or trace of something.
glosses: A quality which is appealing or enjoyable; merit, value.
raw_tags: in the negative
examples: text: The LORDE loke vpon you, ⁊ iudge it, for ye haue made the ſauoure of vs to ſtynke before Pharao and his ſeruauntes, and haue geuen them a ſwerde in their handes, to ſlaye vs.
ref: 1535 October 14 (Gregorian calendar), Myles Coverdale, transl., Biblia: The Byble, […] (Coverdale Bible), [Cologne or Marburg]: [Eucharius Cervicornus and Johannes Soter?], →OCLC, Exodus v:[19], folio xxv, verso, column 2:
text: VVe left Arnulphus [i.e., Arnulf of Chocques] the laſt Patriarch of Jeruſalem; ſince vvhich time the bad ſavour of his life came to the Popes noſe, vvho ſent a Legate to depoſe him.
ref: 1639, Thomas Fuller, “The Ecclesiasticall Affairs in this Kings Reigne”, in The Historie of the Holy Warre, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: […] Thomas Buck, one of the printers to the Universitie of Cambridge [and sold by John Williams, London], →OCLC, book II, page 64:
text: Then came in hall the messenger of Mark, / A name of evil savour in the land, / The Cornish king.
ref: 1874, Alfred Tennyson, “Gareth and Lynette”, in Idylls of the King (The Works of Alfred Tennyson; V), cabinet edition, London: Henry S. King & Co., […], →OCLC, page 52:
glosses: A reputation.
examples: text: Gerald shook his head in the savour of triumph.
ref: 2004, Alan Hollinghurst, chapter 5, in The Line of Beauty […], 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Bloomsbury Publishing, →ISBN, page 105:
glosses: Enjoyment or taste for something; appreciation; pleasure; relish; (countable) an instance of this.
examples: text: [M]any of them were wery of theyr life, beyng very deſyrous of him [Jesus], of whom they had a certeyne ſauour and vnderſtandyng (ſimple though it wer:) who ſodenly ſhould renewe all kynde of men, and theyr ſynnes clerely abolyſhed, bryng them vnto the kyngdõ of righteouſneſſe.
ref: 1549 February 10 (Gregorian calendar; indicated as 1548), Erasmus, “The Paraphrase of Erasmus vpon the Gospell of Saincte Matthew. The .iii. Chapter.”, in Nicolas Udall [i.e., Nicholas Udall], transl., The First Tome or Volume of the Paraphrase of Erasmus vpon the Newe Testamente, London: […] Edwarde Whitchurche, →OCLC, folio xxix, recto:
text: But as I can ſee no merit, / Leading to this favour: / So the vvay to fit me for it, / Is beyond my ſavour.
ref: [1633], George Herbert, “Dialogue”, in [Nicholas Ferrar], editor, The Temple. Sacred Poems, and Private Ejaculations, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: […] Thomas Buck and Roger Daniel; and are to be sold by Francis Green, […], →OCLC, page 107:
glosses: Knowledge; understanding.
Derived terms: english: savored
translation: savored
word: savoured
alt: savorlessness
word: savourlessness
alt: savorless
word: savourless
alt: savorly
word: savourly
alt: savorsome
word: savoursome
word: spendsavour
Related terms: word: sapor
alt: savorily
word: savourily
alt: savoriness
word: savouriness
alt: savorous
word: savourous
english: savory
translation: savory
word: savoury
english: unsavory
translation: unsavory
word: unsavoury