Petrichor

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

For other uses, see Petrichor (disambiguation).

"Scent of rain" and "Smell of rain" redirect here. For other uses, see Scent of Rain (disambiguation) and Smell of Rain (disambiguation).

Soil and water being splashed by a raindrop

Petrichor (/ˈpɛtrɪkɔːr/ PET-rih-kor)^[1] is the earthy scent produced when rain falls on dry soil. The word was coined by Isabel Joy Bear and Richard Grenfell Thomas^[2] from Ancient Greek πέτρα (pétra) 'rock' or πέτρος (pétros) 'stone' and ἰχώρ (ikhṓr), the ethereal fluid that is the blood of the gods in Greek mythology.