Meaning of comfort (what is it, concept and definition)

What is Comfort:

Comfort is the physical or material well-being that certain conditions, circumstances or objects provide.

The word comfort, as such, passed from French to Spanish in the 19th century, coming from the English comfort , with the meaning of 'material comfort or well-being'.

Comfort can be offered thanks to an object (a mattress, a chair, a car), or an environmental circumstance such as the right temperature, a certain level of silence or a feeling of security.

There are certain standards of comfort that we try to have in our home, our work environment and in other spaces that we frequent.

In our home, for example, conditioning the spaces we use daily depending on the activities we carry out helps us to have a better quality of life.

The word comfort should not be confused with the verb comfort , which means 'to give encouragement or comfort to someone', nor with comfortable , which refers to 'that which comforts or encourages'.

Hygrothermal comfort

Hygrothermal comfort is called the well-being that we feel at a thermal level when we are comfortable in a room. This occurs when the body's thermoregulatory mechanisms do not have to intervene to warm us or refresh us, in order to protect our vital functions.

Hygrothermal comfort is a fundamental parameter to define the habitability conditions of a space, which bioclimatic architecture is in charge of.

Acoustic comfort

Acoustic comfort is one in which the noise caused by human activities is not annoying or harmful to people's rest, communication or health. As such, acoustic comfort is a term related to that of noise pollution.

Visual comfort

Visual comfort is referred to in reference to the ideal levels of natural or artificial lighting that are necessary for different human activities: productive, professional, leisure, pleasure, or rest, etc. As such, to achieve visual comfort it is necessary to have a correct design of the lighting system of the space. Visual comfort translates into the person's psychophysiological well-being.

Comfort zone

In psychology and coaching , the comfort zone refers to a mental zone in which we feel satisfied with our situation and consider our needs covered, which is why we avoid taking risks or facing unknown situations that could generate pressure or stress.