cologne
kuh-LOHN · noun
Origin
Cologne comes from French eau de Cologne, literally 'water of Cologne,' named for the German city where the original scented water was created in 1709. The city's French name, Cologne, traces back to Latin Colōnia Agrippīna. English simply clipped the phrase down to the last word.
This is Curio: one word's origin story, every morning. No feed, no backlog.
One short email each morning. Free; stop anytime. See a sample →
Journey
What began as a specific brand name for one perfumed water from one city became so popular that it turned into a generic term for any lightly scented toilet water — a genericized trademark.
Related words
Cologne is a doublet of colony, since both ultimately trace back to the same Latin root, Colōnia.
More words
Nearby, A–Z