Now rare. [see prec. and -ANCY.] The quality of being fragrant; sweetness of smell. Occas. with pl.
1578. J. Banister, The Historie of Man, V. 79 b. He hath lost the sauour of the roses, and frangrantie [sic] of their nature, by deprauyng and falsifieng their Arte.
1607. Topsell, Four-f. Beasts (1658), 120. The fragrancy of every green herb yeeldeth such a savour, as doth not a little obliterate and oversway the savour of the Beast.
1693. Salmon, Bates’ Dispens. (1713), 78/2. Thus have you a most excellent Medicine, and one of the most abominable Scents upon Earth, made one of the greatest Fragrancies in the whole World.
1725. Pope, Odyss., IX. 244.
| The goblet crown’d | |
| Breath’d aromatic fragrancies around. |
1764. Harmer, Observ., IV. 201. The fragrancy of the fruit is admirable: with great agreeableness then might the nose, or breath, of the spouse be compared to citrons.
1876. J. P. Norris, Rudim. Theol., i. 10. My organs of smell so manifestly adjusted by one and the same Creator to the pleasant fragrancy of the fine pollen that floats into the air from a thousand herbs and flowers.
fig. a. 1631. Donne, in Select. (1840), 124. When others give allowance of our works, and are edified by them, there is their savour, their odour, their perfume, their fragrancy.
1689. Trial Pritchard v. Papillon, 6 Nov., 1684, 11. Pray, let us have none of your Fragrancies, and fine Rhetorical Flowers, to take the People with.
1817. Coleridge, Biog. Lit., 100. The High German is indeed a lingua communis, not actually the native language of any province, but the choice and fragrancy of all the dialects.
