Come talk about fun and quirky words in the English Language. Posting is open to all members.
redolent
redolent
/ˈrɛdəl(ə)nt/
Strongly reminiscent or suggestive of. Strongly smelling of. Fragrant or sweet-smelling.
Late Middle English (in the sense ‘fragrant’): from Old French, or from Latin redolent- giving out a strong smell, from re(d)- back, again + olere to smell. (source)
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James Joyce's short story "Two Gallants," published in the collection Dubliners in 1914, is wonderfully redolent of early-twentieth-century Dublin. (source)
It was very dirty and redolent of onions and bad tobacco. (source)




The word is especially powerful because studies seem to indicate that smells triggers memories more readily than our other senses.
That's a great connection to make--I never thought of it that way.
I never thought of the word in that way. Could you write something like this: The atmosphere was redolent of my third-grade classroom. Or, would you have to include words that evoked a scent, the way Joyce does in the example?
If I have this right, there are three ways you can use it. Your example, "redolent of my third-grade classroom" evokes nostalgia (the first definition). A second option is that of a specific fragrance: "redolent of onions and bad tobacco."
A third option (one that's more old-fashioned) is to rely on the definition of redolent as sweet-smelling, so for example you could say, "in the warmth of the afternoon sun, the meadow was redolent."
So true!
I had to read it once or twice to understand the definition. That's cool that it essentially means two different things. But the meanings kind of imply each other because of human physiology.