Petrichor

If I had a pet dragon, this is what I would name him- Petrichor. Such a beautiful word and what a meaning! I stumbled upon this when I was looking at a list of little known words. The etymology is beautiful too and surprising- this word was created and added to the English language only in 1964. It's funny that it took so long to name a smell that people have been greedily getting lung-fulls off for centuries, I imagine.

Wikipedia says it comes from the Greek 'petra' meaning stone and 'ichor'- the golden fluid that flows in the veins of Gods in Greek mythology. I'm guessing that the guys who named it wanted something that represented earthiness as well as something heavenly. I couldn't agree more :)

I also find it interesting that the smell itself isn't simply that of wet earth- it comes from the oils released from leaves, that are absorbed by the soil. So the fragrance, in essence, encapsulates water, land and trees. It's the smell of Earth. The smell of life.