Olfactometry

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. The scientific process of measuring the sense of smell involves assessing odor perception and analyzing olfactory responses in organisms
2. It refers to the methodology used to quantify and evaluate smells through sensory testing and instrumental analysis
3. This term encompasses the techniques for investigating the detection and discrimination of odors in the study of olfaction

Etymology: Olfactometry is a plain modern compound, built from "olfacto-", the combining form of the Latin "olfactus" meaning smell, and the Greek-derived suffix "-metry", meaning measurement. The name describes its purpose exactly: measuring the sense of smell. Its first element comes from the Latin verb "olfacere", to smell, and the same root gives English "olfaction", the sense itself. The suffix "-metry" follows a pattern familiar from many scientific terms, such as "thermometry" and "spectrometry", where a field of measurement is named by joining a subject to "-metry". Here the subject is smell, so the compound names the set of methods for testing how people and animals detect odors and tell one odor from another.