Where It Comes From
Unlike most words on this list, petrichor didn't evolve slowly over centuries — it was invented on purpose, for a single scientific paper. In 1964, two Australian researchers, Isabel Joy Bear and Richard Thomas, published a study in the journal Nature about the mysterious oil that rocks and soil release into the air right before and during rain. They needed a name for it, so they built one from scratch out of Greek: petra, meaning "stone," and ichor, the mythical fluid said to flow through the veins of the Greek gods instead of blood.
Petrichor, literally, is "the blood of the stone."
Say It Around the World
* Not official yet — French and German dictionaries have already adopted this word, but Spain's Royal Academy (RAE) is still reviewing whether "petricor" earns a permanent spot in the Spanish dictionary. Genuinely still being decided.
The next word describes something so short-lived it's basically gone the moment you notice it — a sunset, a good mood, a Friday afternoon.