cologne

Ellipsis of eau de Cologne (French eau de Cologne), the name given to the original product in 1709. The success of the original Eau de Cologne inspired many imitators and it has become a genericized trademark. See Cologne.

• (UK) IPA^(key): /kəˈləʊn/

• Audio (UK):

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• (US) IPA^(key): /kəˈloʊn/

• Audio (US):

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• Audio (General American):

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• Rhymes: -əʊn

cologne (usually uncountable, plural colognes) (perfumery)

1. A type of perfume consisting of 2–5% essential oils, 70–90% alcohol and water.

   Synonym: eau de Cologne

   Coordinate term: eau de parfum

   You stink of too much cologne.

   • 1987 October, Timothy Kalich, “Marketing: What's in a Smell?”, in The Atlantic‎^[1], →ISSN:

     The perfume market has always been a two-tiered one, with a relatively small number of buyers of small bottles of real perfume and eau de parfum that cost large amounts of money, and a larger number of buyers of somewhat larger bottles of cologne and eau de toilette that are considerably more affordable but not always cheap.

   • 1998, Octavia E. Butler, Parable of the Talents, HEADLINE PUBLISHING GROUP (2019), page 95:

     He wore some aftershave or cologne that gave him a heavy, nasty, sweet scent.

2. Any of a family of fresh, citrus-based fragrances distilled using extracts from citrus, floral, and woody ingredients, said to have been developed in the early 18th century in Cologne, Germany.
3. (loosely) A fragrance typically worn by a man as opposed to a woman, regardless of its concentration.

• eau de Cologne

cologne (third-person singular simple present colognes, present participle cologning, simple past and past participle cologned)

1. (transitive) To scent with cologne.

• eau de toilette
• perfume
• toilet water

• El Congo