bibliosmia

English

Etymology

From biblio- (“book”) +‎ -osmia (“smell”). Coined on 24 February 2014 by English lecturer and author Oliver Tearle in a now-deleted tweet,^[1] originally as “the act of smelling books”.^[2]

Noun

bibliosmia (uncountable)

(literature, neologism) The pleasant smell and aroma of a new (or any) book, caused by the gradual chemical breakdown of the compounds used within the paper.
- 2024 August 4, Alexandra Jacobs, “Browsing Is a Pleasure in This History of the Bookstore”, in The New York Times‎^[3]:
  He [Evan Friss] approvingly considers the Instagram wall at Books Are Magic, the novelist Emma Straub’s shop in the Cobble Hill neighborhood of Brooklyn, and less so the eponymous bibliosmia fragrance bottled by Powell’s, the Portland, Ore., landmark.

References

^ Oliver Tearle (2017 July) “On the Science of Bibliosmia: That Enticing Book Smell”, in Dispatches from the Secret Library‎^[1], InterestingLiterature: “Real books have their own smell, so Bradbury was right that this is something missing from the electronic book. In 2014, while bored on Twitter one lunchtime, I proposed that we call this phenomenon 'bibliosmia', after the Greek words for 'book' and 'smell'.”
^ Oliver Tearle (2014 May 9) “10 Words Every Book Lover Should Know”, in HuffPost‎^[2]: “I'll leave you with my own suggestion, BIBLIOSMIA -- meaning the act of smelling books, especially as a way of getting a 'fix' from the aroma of old tomes. Let's get this coinage out there -- I reckon there are more bibliosmiacs out there than many people would realise. It's time we stood up, book in hand, to be counted.”

[1] Oliver Tearle (2017 July) “On the Science of Bibliosmia: That Enticing Book Smell”, in Dispatches from the Secret Library‎^[1], InterestingLiterature: “Real books have their own smell, so Bradbury was right that this is something missing from the electronic book. In 2014, while bored on Twitter one lunchtime, I proposed that we call this phenomenon 'bibliosmia', after the Greek words for 'book' and 'smell'.”

[2] Oliver Tearle (2014 May 9) “10 Words Every Book Lover Should Know”, in HuffPost‎^[2]: “I'll leave you with my own suggestion, BIBLIOSMIA -- meaning the act of smelling books, especially as a way of getting a 'fix' from the aroma of old tomes. Let's get this coinage out there -- I reckon there are more bibliosmiacs out there than many people would realise. It's time we stood up, book in hand, to be counted.”

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