Veda #33 : The Rain's Smell 11:08 PM

Day 33
"Do you know what is the rain's smell?"

A few past months was the beginning of our rainy season, and up until now, maybe it always raining everyday. Lucky for me (and for you) who have a garden or live not in the center of the city (that lacks of soils and trees), you can always smell the rain and the soils. Somehow it's very vibrant and refreshing. But did you know actually what caused this and what its name?

The smell of rain in the dry grounds officially called Petrichor. More specifically, petrichor is the pleasant smell that often accompanies the first rain after a long period of dry weather. It was named by two Australian researchers, who discovered that the smell is an oily essence emitted from rocks or soils. The oil is a complicated mixture of at least fifty different compounds, rather like a perfume. (i wonder if it is gonna be a hot selling item if there are actually a perfume makers who want to make petrichor as their fragrance)

It turned out that the oils are given off by vegetation during dry weather and absorbed to the surface of rocks and soil particles, to be released into the air again by the next rains. There has been some suggestion that the smell may trigger reproductive behaviour in kangaroos and other marsupials. And for most human, they described the smell as pleasant and refreshing, and help to trigger human's memory that connected to creative side. (as for me, it definitely connect to "sleepy" side)

The word comes from Greek petros, a stone, plus ichor, from the Greek word for the fluid that flows like blood in the veins of the gods. So next time you're gonna say "i love the smell of rains", say this instead : "I love the smell of petrichor".
there, you're officially sounds way better, plus 10 for you. :))
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Veda #32 : Double U 11:53 PM

Day 32
"Why we called letter "W" with "double u", when in facts it looks more like "double v" ?"

W

Twenty-third letter of alphabet, W, pronounciated "double u", despite the facts that it looks more like two v's standing together. Okay, in Indonesia we called it "We", but how did this "W" ended up with "double u" ?

The history itself goes all the way back to the 11th century.
After the Norman invasion of Britain, the Anglo-Saxon language was written down using Roman letters.
The Roman alphabet doesn't have a W. It doesn't have a V, either, but what looks like a V is actually their U. In Rome it was often carved as V to avoid the difficult-to-carve rounded bottom.

When the English adopted the 23 letters of the Roman alphabet a long time ago, they decided they needed a new letter to pronounce the W sound, so they made a "double U" with the Roman V, They paired together two U's (at that time, it was like "VV" that makes a W). But, they didn't call it "double U" they called it "wyn" first time, and it looked sort of like a P with a short leg, not like the W we used to know. The usage of this symbol makes it more biased and look similar with alphabet "P" that already formed before.

Then, the French came along and adopted the W again. They weren't content with that, however, and sort of made it into a combination of W and G, which is why we have words like "warranty" and "guaranty" that mean the same thing. At any rate, they re-imported W into the English language in 1066, and the English set it back to the old Roman combination.

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