Etymology Word of the Week – As some of you know, in addition to working in the Admissions Office, I also teach Latin at Saint Ignatius and am something of a "word nerd." Thus, each week, I’ll sneak a vocabulary word (sometimes derived from Latin, sometimes not) into the e-blast. Here then is this week’s edition of the Etymology Word of the Week.
Petrichor - “a distinctive scent, usually described as earthy, pleasant, or sweet, produced by rainfall on very dry ground.” From the Greek forms petr- meaning “rock, stone” and ichor, which in Classical Mythology refers to an “ethereal fluid (something akin to blood) flowing in the veins of the gods.” (All information is from www.wikipedia.org, www.etymonline.com and/or www.dictionary.com)
RELATED WORDS/PHRASES – petroleum, petrol, petrology
SENTENCE: “Did you know that camels in the desert rely on petrichor to locate sources of water such as oases?”