20 volumes of the OED

Petrichor is the scent that rises from pavement after rain has begun to fall. I love that smell. Where did it get a word?

Read this article. Brilliant.


This guy read the entire OED, and then wrote a book about it.

"I have to say, it was absolutely delightful," Shea said. "It was such a moving experience. It felt so similar to reading a great work of literature."

As Shea wrote in Reading the OED, "All of the human emotions and experiences are right there in this dictionary, just as they would be in any fine work of literature. They just happen to be alphabetized."

Part of that appreciation, Shea said, came when words seemed to arrange themselves into strings of poetry or prose.

thanks, carol. i probably stole your thunder. but i couldn't resist posting it myself.