birding-aus

Petrichor

To: Carl Clifford <>
Subject: Petrichor
From: Martin Butterfield <>
Date: Thu, 2 Apr 2015 15:18:38 +1100
Carl

Good point.  Why not move a bit further North than the Cape, and a bit
further back in time, to Olduvai Gorge? The people there these days speak
Kiswahili (as well as Kimaasai) and would call the smell of rain "harafu ya
mvua"?  That could cause wazungu tonsils to get a bit knotted so perhaps
acronym it to HYM.

Martin

Martin Butterfield
http://franmart.blogspot.com.au/

On 2 April 2015 at 15:01, Carl Clifford <> wrote:

> Martin,
> I was thinking more of something in Xhosa, actually. Something that would
> evoke the feelings of our distant ancestors as the crossed the parched
> African veldt and sensed the oncoming rains.
> Or perhaps rain smell will do.
>
> Carl
>
>
> On 2 Apr 2015, at 2:38 pm, Martin Butterfield <>
> wrote:
>
> Carl
>
> Playing with English letters for the greek translations of a couple of
> words I came up with "neromyrodia" for "water scent".    Would that suit
> you better?
>
> Martin
>
> Martin Butterfield
> http://franmart.blogspot.com.au/
>
> On 2 April 2015 at 13:52, Carl Clifford <> wrote:
>
>> I would not be surprised. According to the article about petrichor on the
>> CSIRO's web site, mammals seem to smell it.
>>
>> I have always found the smell of petrichor somewhat exciting. Perhaps it
>> is hard wired into us. They could have coined a more romantic name, though.
>> The ichor part reminds me of horror movies.
>>
>> Carl Clifford
>>
>>
>>
>> > On 2 Apr 2015, at 11:25 am, Stephen Ambrose <>
>> wrote:
>> >
>> > I wonder if this is one of the cues birds use to direct them to
>> > high-rainfall areas, particularly in the arid zone?
>> >
>> >
>> https://theconversation.com/the-smell-of-rain-how-csiro-invented-a-new-word-
>> > 39231
>> >
>> > Stephen Ambrose
>> > Ryde NSW
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> >
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