Thursday 22 March 2012

Moschate

Word of the Day for Thursday, March 22, 2012

moschate \MOS-keyt\, adjective:
Having a musky smell.

Her familiar perfume and moschate odour was overwhelming within the confines of the car, especially with the windows rolled up.
-- Charles Ray Willeford, New Hope for the Dead

The plant of the Rio Grande is said by Mr. Schott to exhale a moschate odour.
-- William Hemsley Emory, Report on the United States and Mexican Boundary Survey, Volume 2, Part 1

Though moschate has Latin roots, it was not used widely in English until the early 1800s. The word mosch meant "musky" in Latin and was used to describe the wine commonly known today at "muscat."

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