Odor
Odor (from Latin odor 'smell', 'scent'; 'stench', 'fragrance', 'olfactory sense') is the name for the specific odor developed by a fragrance , which is perceived with the sense of smell and depending on the concentration depending on the situation and perceiving Subject can be perceived as a scent or stench .
Living beings not only emit smells that are largely determined by the nutrients chosen and their typical metabolism and can be so characteristic of a way of life that a species can be recognized in them in this sense. In addition, depending on the situation, most of them also form special substances that have signal character, such as pheromones . In numerous animal species, such fragrances play a key role in intra-species social behavior - see z. B. the communication in house mice , that of honeybees or that of ants - which then an ant blue uses . Attractively or in a blocking manner, these substances regulate approach and distance, establish affiliations, initiate the formation of groups and couples, mark territorial boundaries or the allocation of places in space and trigger synchronous behavioral patterns, including forms of sexual behavior.
Humans also have special scent glands that change the scent of their body in different ways and can cover certain regions with a signaling odor, depending on their emotional state. Depending on the situation and mood, a body odor can also arouse affection or dislike in the other person and thus create an atmosphere . In many cultures it is therefore common to influence the body's own odor from the outside. This odor is reduced by rituals of deodorization and can be replaced, supplemented or masked as a perfume by applying fragrances foreign to the body . As an odeur , a perfumer describes the bouquet (presumed to be fragrant) of a fragrance composition that the user - in the seldom tested belief - uses to increase the attractiveness in personal contact.
Odorisation also means the enrichment of almost odorless substances such as B. Natural gas with intensely smelling substances ( odorants ) in order to make them more perceptible and to make them safer to handle.
Some mammals of the order Carnivora , including dogs, try to achieve the opposite effect by attempting to impregnate their fur with substances that smell differently, so that the adhering smell makes it difficult for prey animals to absorb the weather .
See also:
- The perfume , novel by Patrick Süskind
Individual evidence
- ^ Karl Georges: Comprehensive Latin-German concise dictionary. Volume 2, p. 1172 f.