Cologne and Perfume: A History of Two Words

Perfume derives from the Latin per fumum, meaning through smoke, a reference to the burning of aromatic resins throughout the ancient world. In time it came to denote a specific concentration of perfume oil in alcohol.

Cologne takes its name from the city of Köln, where in the early eighteenth century Johann Maria Farina produced a light, citrus-forward fragrance water he called Eau de Cologne. Lighter and more affordable than the perfumes of the period, it was applied generously, and the name became synonymous with the category.

The two words describe concentration, not gender. Only in the twentieth century did marketers begin labelling men's fragrance as cologne, to distance it from the word perfume. The industry recognises a spectrum: parfum, eau de parfum, eau de toilette, and eau de cologne, in descending order of intensity.