flavour

The word 'flavour' entered English in the late 14th century from the Anglo-French 'flavour' and Old French 'flaor', meaning 'smell, odour'. This Old French term is believed to derive from Vulgar Latin flator 'odour', which itself comes from Latin flatare, a frequentative form of 'flare', meaning 'to blow'. The semantic journey is one of sensory perception broadening from the act of blowing or breathing, to the scent carried on the breath, and finally to the distinctive taste or character perceived by the senses. The modern spelling with 'v' was influenced by the Latin 'flavus' (yellow), creating a folk etymology linking it to colour, though this is not the true origin.

The word 'flavour' is a simplex loanword from Old French. It does not contain separable, productive morphemes in modern English that are direct substrings of the current spelling.