petrichor | Word of the Day

February 28, 2019 petrichor [pe-tri-kawr, ‐trahy-] noun 1. a distinctive scent, usually described as earthy, pleasant, or sweet, produced by rainfall on very dry ground. word-trends The Most Searched Words Of 2018 On Dictionary.com word-trends Has The Word "Expert" Lost Its Meaning In 2019? WORD OF THE DAY petrichor continued... QUOTES I surfaced from the tunnel in a shack, where the air was close and smelled of petrichor. -- Samantha Shannon, The Mime Order, 2015 ORIGIN Petrichor is an uncommon word used in mineral chemistry or geochemistry to describe the pleasant scent of rain falling on very dry ground. Petrichor is a compound of the Greek nouns pétrā "rock, stone" (as in petroleum "rock oil") and īchṓr, the juice or liquid—not blood!—that flows in the veins of the Olympian gods. About 60 percent of ancient Greek words have no satisfactory etymology; īchṓr is one of them. Petrichor was coined by two Australian chemists, Isabel "Joy" Bear and Richard Grenfell Thomas, in 1964. MORE FOR YOU 1 How Does Adding The Word "Possible" Change News What is a possible hate crime? A possible sexual assault? A possible terrorist attack? 2 What Does It Mean To Be Electable? The word electable seems self-explanatory. Technically, it means "capable of, or having a reasonable chance of being elected." But, what are we really talking about when we say that someone is electable? 3 Why Are People Getting "Canceled"? It's a bit disconcerting that we're canceling people because in many ways it's dehumanizing. So, why are we using it? 4 Hashtags To Help You Get By On Social Media Sometimes, it's hard to keep track of all these hashtags and what they mean. So, we've rounded up some of our favorite hashtags from the past couple years to help you navigate the social media weeds. #amazeballs 5 Why We Need The Serial Comma: 10 Hilarious Real-World Examples Take a look at these hilarious examples of real-world sentences that are sorely missing a serial comma © 2018 Dictionary.com, LLC. ABOUT CONTACT You are subscribed to the Word of the Day as: matzom229@gmail.com Subscriber since: September 06, 2017 Unsubscribe Dictionary.com, LLC. 555 12th Street Suite 500 Oakland CA 94607 Manage your subscription Terms & Privacy