Plants & CreaturesGreek → English
Pheromone
/ˈfɛrəmoʊn/noun
A chemical released by an animal that changes the behaviour or physiology of another of its species.
The Greek roots
φέρω
phérō
to carry, bear
ὁρμάω
hormáō
to set in motion, urge
Literally: “carrying a stimulus”
The story of the word
Peter Karlson and Martin Lüscher coined it in 1959, from φέρω, to carry, plus the tail of hormone, itself from ὁρμάω, to set in motion. A hormone carries a signal inside one body; a pheromone carries it between bodies. The timing was no accident: Adolf Butenandt's group had just identified bombykol, the silk moth attractant, after grinding the scent glands of hundreds of thousands of females.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → scientific coinage → English
- First recorded
- 1959
Same family
hormonemetaphorperipheryphosphorus
In a sentence
The trap works because the lure copies one pheromone the male cannot ignore.
Ants lay a pheromone trail on the way home and reinforce it only if the food is still there.