That when the rain did finally begin to fall, as I began None about an hour ago, the scent of it was redolent of Summer and heat and all things goods, although it's not really all that warm-- it's probably in the upper 50s, perhaps (55, the weather app on the mobile tells me).
Rain, such a simple word, presumably Anglo-Saxon: 'a word inherited from Germanic', says the Oxford English Dictionary; 'the word has no secure cognates in Indo-European languages' other than in:
I think the rainfall (already done with, for the minute) calls for Chopin.
But I do have a bone to pick with the OED people. They insist on calling hearse, in the sense of the candelabrum used at Tenebrae, 'obsolete'. Everywhere in the entire English-speaking world that the anticipated offices of Matins and Lauds for Holy Thursday, Good Friday, and Holy Saturday are sung, the word hearse is used. How is that obsolescence?
I can't think of it and so will look. Putrefaction is what I keep recurring to and that obviously isn't right. Ha; ichor is (again obviously) not it but something like that. Petrichor? An hour and half but my memory did the job. The -ichor element is indeed that ichor; the first part is meant to evoke the oily liquid compound in the surface ground thought to produce the odor, or something like that.
Rain, such a simple word, presumably Anglo-Saxon: 'a word inherited from Germanic', says the Oxford English Dictionary; 'the word has no secure cognates in Indo-European languages' other than in:
Old Frisian rein (West Frisian rein), Old Dutch rēgan (Middle Dutch rēgen, rēghen, rein, Dutch regen), Old Saxon regan, regin, (in compounds) regen (Middle Low German rēgen), Old High German regan, regen, regin (Middle High German regen, German Regen), Old Icelandic regn, Old Swedish räghn (Swedish regn, (now rare) rägn), Old Danish reghen, reyn (Danish regn), Gothic rign, and Crimean Gothic reghen.And, no, I cannot remember the word that describes the smell of rain having just fallen. Have been trying to ever since the end of None, and whilst I prepared my dinner (of fava beans, and ham, and broccoli in artifical chicken broth), and since. It is on the tip of my tongue.
I think the rainfall (already done with, for the minute) calls for Chopin.
But I do have a bone to pick with the OED people. They insist on calling hearse, in the sense of the candelabrum used at Tenebrae, 'obsolete'. Everywhere in the entire English-speaking world that the anticipated offices of Matins and Lauds for Holy Thursday, Good Friday, and Holy Saturday are sung, the word hearse is used. How is that obsolescence?
I can't think of it and so will look. Putrefaction is what I keep recurring to and that obviously isn't right. Ha; ichor is (again obviously) not it but something like that. Petrichor? An hour and half but my memory did the job. The -ichor element is indeed that ichor; the first part is meant to evoke the oily liquid compound in the surface ground thought to produce the odor, or something like that.
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