Flair
late 19th century: from French, from flairer ‘to smell’, based on Latin fragrare ‘smell sweet’. Compare with fragrant.
wiktionary
From Middle English flayre, from Old French flair(“scent, odour”), from flairier(“to reek, smell”), from Latin flāgrō, dissimilated variation of frāgrō(“emit a sweet smell”, verb). More at fragrant.
etymonline
flair (n.)
mid-14c., "an odor," from Old French flaire "odor or scent," especially in hunting, "fragrance, sense of smell," from flairier "to give off an odor; stink; smell sweetly" (Modern French flairer), from Vulgar Latin *flagrare, a dissimilation of Latin fragrare "emit (a sweet) odor" (see fragrant). Sense of "special aptitude" is American English, 1925, probably from hunting and the notion of a hound's ability to track scent.
