the word 'suave' entered english in the late 15th century from the middle french 'suave', meaning 'pleasant, sweet'. this, in turn, was borrowed from the latin adjective 'suāvis', which carried the sense of 'sweet, pleasant, agreeable' to the taste or other senses. the latin term is derived from the proto-indo-european root swād- ('sweet, pleasant'), which also gives us the word 'sweet'. the semantic journey is direct, from a literal sense of physical sweetness to a metaphorical description of smooth, charming, and agreeable manners.

this word is a loanword from latin via french and is not productively segmented using modern english spelling components.