bibliosmia

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noun

The pleasant smell and aroma of a new (or any) book, caused by the gradual chemical breakdown of the compounds used within the paper.

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Meanings

nounbibliosmia (uncountable)
  1. neologismuncountableliteratureThe pleasant smell and aroma of a new (or any) book, caused by the gradual chemical breakdown of the compounds used within the paper.

    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.

    2024 August 4, Alexandra Jacobs, “Browsing Is a Pleasure in This History of the Bookstore”, in The New York Times

Origin

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

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

bibliosmia. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/bibliosmia

MLA

“bibliosmia.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/bibliosmia. Accessed November 4, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “bibliosmia,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/bibliosmia.

Source: bibliosmia on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.