carvone

1 9.4

A natural substance found in plants like spearmint, caraway, and dill that gives a minty or caraway smell

noun
/ˈkɑrvən/

Specialized

: carvona

In the laboratory, scientists isolated the carvone compound from caraway seeds.

Examples

The minty aroma of carvone is often used in perfumes and flavorings.
For example, carvone has a left handed and right handed form.
As they traveled back, Ozzy telephoned Sol from Uri's carvone and learned what had occurred in the bar.

Fiction book (1994)
The carvone in spearmint gives it its distinctive refreshing scent.

Surface Forms

carvone singular

carvones plural

Morphology

carvone = carv + one

The suffix '-one' signals a chemical ketone class (helpful for recognising it as a chemical), but the root 'carv-' is not a standalone English word and does not transparently convey the familiar source (caraway), so the full meaning is not directly derivable by learners.

Etymology

Carvone comes from the spice caraway, because this chemical gives caraway its strong smell. The ending -one is a common name ending for chemicals, so carvone can be thought of as 'the chemical of caraway', which is why it smells like caraway or spearmint.