Abstract
Karlson and Lüscher1 have recently proposed the term ‘pheromone’ for a class of substances which, while resembling hormones in some respects, cannot be included among them because they are not of an endocrine origin. It is claimed that the latter part of the proposed word is derived from the Greek hormōn (which should properly be hormān), meaning ‘to excite’. This is not so. It was apparently the intention of the authors to find a term which, while being derivable from hormōn, bore little overt resemblance to the word ‘hormone’. This they achieved by the improper expedient of dropping the letter ‘r’, thus mutilating the root of the Greek word. It should be a principle, when a scientific term is derived from classical origins, that the term must by its structure be traceable to those origins. In the case of the word ‘pheromone’ that principle is not observed : there is no structural clue to its derivation from hormān. Indeed, the only Greek verb (apart from pherein) which might conceivably be involved in its ancestry means ‘to swear’.
Similar content being viewed by others
Article PDF
References
Karlson, P., and Lüscher, M., Nature, 183, 55 (1959).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
MICKLEM, H. The Proposed Biological Term ‘Pheromone’. Nature 183, 1835 (1959). https://doi.org/10.1038/1831835a0
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/1831835a0
This article is cited by
Comments
By submitting a comment you agree to abide by our Terms and Community Guidelines. If you find something abusive or that does not comply with our terms or guidelines please flag it as inappropriate.