4 ms·
I always hated this word — it was made up in the 1960s, and it sounds to me like it is describing something disgusting that you’d scrape off the ground. The pl
by warning26 4y ago
I always hated this word — it was made up in the 1960s, and it sounds to me like it is describing something disgusting that you’d scrape off the ground.
The pleasant smell of rain deserves a better word than ”petrichor”.
- function_seven 4y agoHeh. To me is sounds like some Victorian-era disease that requires a suitable balancing of humors and maybe a touch of bloodletting to cure.
- warning26 4y agoHah! I like your interpretation as well. “I’m sorry sir, it appears you are suffering from a case of petrichor. A bracing draught of brandy ought to put this right!”
- layer8 4y agoPetrifying to the core. Or a music genre. “I’m mainly listening to petrichor these days.” A fancy name for liquor on the rocks.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- elkos 4y agoOMG, I'm Greek the word sounded awfully lot ancient Greek to me and I heard it a couple of times, even misattributed to Ancient Greek scholars etc. It is a portmanteau of "πέτρα (petra)" meaning "rock" and "ιχώρ (ichor)" which is the mythological golden substance in the blood of the Ancient Greek Gods. So this sounds all pretty Greek to me with all the quirky mythological stuff that come with the Ancient Greek but here the thing. The first time people (some Australians) came up with the work was in a 60s issue of Nature http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/201993a0 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/201993a0 Looking forward to tease my acquaintances that claim "our ancestors had such a diverse dictionary they even had a word for the pleasant smell of rain".