Novel Commotion

The other day, I was blissfully blogging away when I stopped by my friend LuAnne Holder’s entertaining and enlightening blog Wind Rush and was delighted not only by the lovely haibun she posted but also by a novel word she used that I’d never come across before.

Y’all know how much I love discovering new words.  A mild but growing despair had been brewing in my breast over the past few months.  Since April 9th, I have read 18 books but have not encountered any new words.  You can imagine how delighted I am finally to have a new one to add to my page “A Writer’s Reliquary” today.

Even better: the Merriam-Webster.com page that lists the word contains several others in the same category, so I learned more than one.  None of them are all that common; some of them haven’t yet made it into printed dictionaries.  A few of them I was already familiar with.  Still, I only included one in my reliquary.  If you love words, have some free time, and want to experience the joy yourself, click the link following the definition below.

petrichor, noun, (Oxford English Dictionary):  A pleasant, distinctive smell frequently accompanying the first rain after a long period of warm, dry weather in certain regions.
(From https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/internets-favorite-words/petrichor, accessed 8/3/18)  (Added 8/3/18)

I have always absolutely loved the odor that accompanies the first few raindrops falling on hot asphalt and have wondered if there were a single word for that delightful aroma.  Yet I wonder still.  Does petrichor suffice to describe it?  Or does it need its own word?  “Astrichor” doesn’t sound right.  How about “pavetrichor”?  Now I don’t want to start a commotion, but what do y’all think?  Do you have a word you use to describe that scent?

Via Ragtag Daily Prompt #64, “novel”

Via Fandango’s One-Word Challenge for 8/3/18, “commotion“