waft

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
waft /wɒft, wɑːft/

▶verb pass easily or gently through the air.

■ move with a gliding motion.

▶noun

• 1 a gentle movement of air.

  ■ a scent carried in the air.

• 2 (also weft) Nautical, historical a knotted ensign or garment displayed by a ship as a signal.

– origin C16 (in the sense ‘escort a ship’): back-form. from obs. wafter ‘armed convoy vessel’, from Low Ger., Du. wachten ‘to guard’; sense 2 perh. rel. to Scots and northern English waff ‘a signal or wave’, a var. of wave.