Ah now there's a word to describe something I've always loved and never had a word for! I wonder if there is a word for the smell in the air that precedes rain. Around here in the summer sometimes it smells just like the nearby Elkhorn Creek just before a rain.
Getting back to petrichor, the smell that comes with rain is probably very different in the city than it is in the countryside. And yet I like the urban smell of fresh rain on hot, dusty, oily streets. What do they call that -- petrolichor I imagine.
According to Quinion,It was named by two Australian researchers in an article in Nature in 1964,
And I have the impression that it occurs only under very
special conditions that none of us are likely to encounter.
I think it is pretty common Bill. I've always noticed a distinct scent after a rainfall. Different depending upon where I am, the type of rainfall and the time of year.
I don't like the term though, generally it's a nice scent (apart from spring-time in the city which just smells like exposed and melting dog poop) and petrichor doesn't do it justice.
I think it's the "ich" which sounds like "ICK" a sound of disgust.
Hey, Alex, good to see you! [blowing kiss e] We just mentioned Elkhorn Creek not two hours ago--thinking of possible fishing places. Finally decided it was too chilly, though.
I seem to recall a question here a long time ago, about the smell that precedes rain.
Here's a related post (hi, Connie):
http://wordsmith.org/board/showthreaded.pl?Cat=&Board=words&Number=42446And another (cross-threading, Anna!):
http://wordsmith.org/board/showthreaded.pl?Cat=&Board=miscellany&Number=21900And another, though I still don't think this is what I was thinking of:
http://wordsmith.org/board/showthreaded.pl?Cat=&Board=words&Number=42643