comfort zone

English

Etymology

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Pronunciation

• Audio (Australia):

  (file)

Noun

comfort zone (plural comfort zones)

1. The range of temperature, humidity, and other environmental factors that people or other organisms require in order to be physiologically unstressed.
   • 2014, Terri Mauro, The Everything Parent's Guide to Sensory Processing Disorder, →ISBN, page 191:

     The child who swings between extremes has trouble finding the comfort zone—the area in which her body is comfortable, efficient, and alert.

   • 2015, The Worldwatch Institute, State of the World 2000, →ISBN:

     All this is very bad news for coral, which has a fairly limited temperature comfort zone.

   • 2015, Victor Olgyay, Design with Climate: Bioclimatic Approach to Architectural Regionalism, →ISBN:

     The desirable comfort zone indicated lies between 30 and 65% relative humidity.

   • 2016, Gail Damerow, The Chicken Health Handbook, →ISBN:

     The warmest temperature that defines this comfort zone is the critical high temperature, above which chickens suffer heat stress. The lowest temperature is the critical low, below which chickens suffer cold stress.

2. (idiomatic, by extension) The range of circumstances in which a person feels relaxed or able to cope.

   The demanding interview panel took him well out of his comfort zone.

   • 2021 January 11, “How Dancing Can Help You Do Anything”, in Harlequin The Dance Store‎^[1], archived from the original on 20 January 2021:

     Anything is a strong word… But the major building blocks of life: work, relationships, leisure activities and growth – dancing can help you with all of these. How? By getting you out of your comfort zone. And getting out of your comfort zone is the first step towards being a dancer, as well as succeeding at most other activities.

Translations

range of environmental factors

• Chinese:

  Cantonese: 舒適區 / 舒适区 (syu¹ sik¹ keoi¹), 舒適圈 / 舒适圈 (syu¹ sik¹ hyun¹)

  Mandarin: 舒適區 / 舒适区 (shūshìqū), 舒適圈 / 舒适圈 (shūshìquān)

• Finnish: mukavuusalue (fi)
• French: zone de confort (fr) f
• Hungarian: komfortzóna (hu)
• Polish: strefa komfortu f
• Portuguese: zona de conforto f
• Russian: зона комфорта (ru) f (zona komforta)
• Spanish: zona de confort f

circumstances in which a person feels relaxed

• Arabic: مِنْطَقَة رَاحَة f (minṭaqat rāḥa)

  Egyptian Arabic: كمفورت زون f (kamfort zōn)

• Catalan: zona de confort f
• Chinese:

  Cantonese: 舒適區 / 舒适区 (syu¹ sik¹ keoi¹)

  Mandarin: 舒適區 / 舒适区 (shūshìqū), 舒適圈 / 舒适圈 (shūshìquān)

• Czech: komfortní zóna f
• Danish: komfortzone c
• Dutch: luie stoel m
• Finnish: mukavuusalue (fi)
• French: zone de confort (fr) f
• German: Komfortzone (de) f
• Greek: ζώνη άνεσης f (zóni ánesis)
• Hebrew: אֵזוֹר הַנוֹחוּת (ezór ha-nokhút)
• Hungarian: komfortzóna (hu)
• Indonesian: zona nyaman (id)
• Italian: comfort zone (it) f, zona di conforto (it) f
• Japanese: コンフォートゾーン (konfōtozōn)
• Malay: zon selesa
• Polish: strefa komfortu f
• Portuguese: zona de conforto f
• Romanian: zonă de confort f
• Russian: зона комфорта (ru) f (zona komforta)
• Spanish: zona de confort f
• Swedish: bekvämlighetszon c
• Turkish: konfor alanı (tr)
• Ukrainian: зона комфорту f (zona komfortu)

Italian

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from English comfort zone.

Noun

comfort zone f (invariable)

1. comfort zone

   Synonym: zona di conforto