Why did everyone begin talking about ‘petrichor’ when it started to rain?
Twitter was abuzz with the word.
Heavy rain often accompanies hot temperatures, and after a long stretch of heat the UK found itself in the grip of the wet stuff at last.
Yes, the long hot summer is being disrupted with thunderstorms, which have prompted the Met Office to issue a weather warning.
And while the sight of rain might be something of a disappointment for some, one of the benefits of the downpour is the return of petrichor.
The word was the talk of social media when the clouds burst, but what does it mean? Here’s wordsmith and star of Countdown’s Dictionary Corner Susie Dent to tell us more.
A word that probably doesn’t come up all that often in conversation, the sensation is nonetheless something loads of people are familiar with.
And while you won’t actually be able to smell the marvellous scent simply by reading this, here’s a video to help you imagine it that bit more accurately.
Every cloud has a silver lining.
