savour

English

Alternative forms

Pronunciation
  • IPA(key): /ˈseɪvə(ɹ)/
  • Rhymes: -eɪvə(ɹ)
  • Audio (Southern England)(file)

Etymology 1

From Middle English savour, from Old French savour, from Latin sapor (“taste, flavor”), from sapiō (“taste of, have a flavor of”). Doublet of sapor.

Noun

savour (countable and uncountable, plural savours) (British spelling)

  1. The specific taste or smell of something.
    • 1898, J. Meade Falkner, chapter 5, in Moonfleet, London, Toronto, Ont.: Jonathan Cape, published 1934:
      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.
    • 1914, Louis Joseph Vance, chapter I, in Nobody, New York, N.Y.: George H[enry] Doran Company, published 1915, →OCLC:
      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 of all its savour.
  2. A distinctive sensation.
    • 1650, Richard Baxter, The Saints Everlasting Rest:
      Why is not my life a continual joy, and the savour of heaven perpetually upon my spirit?
  3. Sense of smell; power to scent, or trace by scent.
    • [1633], George Herbert, edited by [Nicholas Ferrar], The Temple: Sacred Poems, and Private Ejaculations, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: […] Thomas Buck and Roger Daniel; and are to be sold by Francis Green, […], →OCLC; reprinted London: Elliot Stock, […], 1885, →OCLC:
      beyond my savour
  4. Pleasure; appreciation; relish.
Translations

Etymology 2

From Middle English savour, from Old French savourer, from savour, or possibly Late Latin sapōrāre, present active infinitive of sapōrō, from sapor (“taste, flavor”), from sapiō (“taste of, have a flavor of”).

Verb

savour (third-person singular simple present savours, present participle savouring, simple past and past participle savoured) (British spelling)

  1. (intransitive) To possess a particular taste or smell, or a distinctive quality.
  2. (transitive) To appreciate, enjoy or relish something.
    • 2020 August 26, Andrew Mourant, “Reinforced against future flooding”, in Rail, page 58:
      A journey along the Conwy Valley line is one to savour for aficionados of scenic railways.
    He closed his eyes so he could really savour his dessert.
  3. (transitive, archaic) To season.
    • 1974, W. R. Barron, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (modern translation)
      […] divers sorts of fish; some baked in bread, some broiled on the coals, some seethed, some in gravy savoured with spices, and all with condiments so cunning that it caused him delight.
Translations
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Anagrams

Middle English

Etymology 1

Borrowed from Old French savor, savour, from Latin sapor, sapōrem.

Noun

savour

  1. taste
Descendants
  • English: savour, savor

Noun

savour

  1. Alternative form of saveour

Old French

Etymology

From Latin sapor, sapōrem.

Noun

savour oblique singular, m (oblique plural savours, nominative singular savours, nominative plural savour)

  1. taste

Quotations
  • For quotations using this term, see Citations:savour.

Derived terms

Descendants
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