Odorant

Description

A strong smelling substance that is added to another material. Some odorants are used to obscur an offensive odor. For example, essential oil odorants are sometimes added to watercolor paints that have a fish glue binder. Other times odorants are added to a material to provide a warning of its presence. For example mercaptan derivatives are added to natural gas so that leaks can be quickly detected. Examples of essential oils used as odorants are oil lemon oil, oil cedar oil, and oil clove oil.

Synonyms and Related Terms

oloroso (Esp.)

Authority

• Ralph Mayer, Ralph Mayer, A Dictionary of Art Terms and Techniques, Harper and Row Publishers, New York, 1969 (also 1945 printing)

• Richard S. Lewis, Richard S. Lewis, Hawley's Condensed Chemical Dictionary, Van Nostrand Reinhold, New York, 10th ed., 1993

• Random House, Random House, Webster's Encyclopedic Unabridged Dictionary of the English Language, Grammercy Book, New York, 1997

• Art and Architecture Thesaurus Online, http://www.getty.edu/research/tools/vocabulary/aat/, J. Paul Getty Trust, Los Angeles, 2000