incense
Does incense incense you?
The sentence asks whether the smell of burning aromatic substance angers the listener.
Meanings
an aromatic substance burned to produce fragrant smoke, used in religious ceremonies and for ambient fragrance
- The temple smelled of jasmine incense.
- She lit a stick of sandalwood incense.
to make extremely angry; to enrage
- The judge's ruling incensed the activists.
- Nothing incenses him more than tardiness.
Word origin
Both senses descend from Latin incendere ('to set on fire, kindle'), formed from in- (intensifier) + candere ('to glow, shine'). The noun /ˈɪnsɛns/ (the burning substance) and the verb /ɪnˈsɛns/ (to anger) split via the trochaic noun rule — the noun took front-stress, the verb took end-stress. The 'anger' meaning developed from the metaphor of 'igniting' someone's emotions.
Fun fact
The Latin candere ('to glow, shine') is the same root that gives 'candle', 'candid' (originally 'shining white'), 'candidate' (originally a person dressed in white robes seeking office), and 'incendiary'. To incense someone is metaphorically to 'set them ablaze' — the same Latin root, in two opposite emotional registers.