Wednesday's Word: Petrichor

Petrichor (n):
the scent of rain on dry earth.

How to use it:
There are few things that stirs my soul as petrichor does. - Antonie Fourie

My lust for petrichor meets the earth's lust for rain. - LF

The musty, barky smell of fresh rain fallen on the dry earth is petrichor. - Oxford online dictionary

Fun Facts:

• Only noun in English that means a specific scent.
• It is made-up of two Greek words, petros = stone and ichor = fluid that flows in the veins of gods in ancient myth.
• The smell derives from plant oils absorbed by dry soil that is released into the air, along with a by-product of bacteria (geosmin), when the soil gets wet.
• Biologists suspect that petrichor entering water passages indicates to freshwater fish that it is spawning time.
• The geosmin's fragrance also serves as a beacon, helping camels find their way to desert oases. In return, the bacteria that produces geosmin use the camels as carriers for their spores.

Sources:

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/storm-scents-smell-rain/

http://english.stackexchange.com/questions/116639/how-to-use-the-word-petrichor-in-a-sentence

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petrichor

http://www.wordsmith.org/words/petrichor.html

http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/petrichor