Word To Use Today: attar.

A word with an -ar ending has long been for me a thing of wild romance and mystery. I think it began with my long and wistful though unsuccessful search through the atlas for the fabled town of Orientar (you know, Orientar: where the three kings come from).

Then there's attar, avatar, hussar, pulsar and nectar...all mysterious and lovely things.

Attar practically always comes, in literature at least, from roses: it's the scent of timeless houris draped teasingly amongst shimmering silks, a note of voluptuousness produced from the gorgeous damask rose.


photo by Florian Moekel

I long to see that lady reclining on her divan in Orientar, languidly dizzy with her own perfume.


painting by Pierre-Auguste Renoir

Unfortunately I live in a time and place where the top-selling perfume is called Babe Power.

Ah well!

Word To Use Today: attar. This word comes from the Persian 'atir, perfumed, from 'itr, perfume, and before that from Arabic.