Reference point
Strike a match and smell the moment the flame flares.
Do this before you read on. An entry only works when you have just smelled the thing.
Sharp, pungent, mineral, with a very brief rotten-egg note that vanishes within seconds.
This is the shortest entry in the dictionary. The whole experience lasts about three seconds; after that there is only the ordinary smell of burning wood. Miss those three seconds and you have to strike another match.
The smell comes from the sulphur and phosphorus compounds in the match head, not from the wood. It belongs to the small group of entries of entirely inorganic origin, together with firework smoke and electric welding.
How to smell it
Strike a match, hold it a hand’s span from your nose and smell within the first three seconds. Don’t wait for the flame to settle — by then it is too late. Do it two or three times to be sure you catch the right moment.
Why this one is hard
Because the time window is extremely short and because of the reflex to avoid fire. Get ready before you strike.
Don’t confuse with
This entry
Struck match
Smoky & Mineral family
The same sulphur group, but fireworks are on a much larger scale and add metal salts for colour.
Scientific note
A match head contains red phosphorus, potassium chlorate and sulphur. When struck, the mixture ignites and produces sulphur dioxide and phosphorus oxides — both very light inorganic molecules. Together with firework smoke and electric welding, this is one of the rare entries in the dictionary whose smell has no biological origin at all.
In Vietnamese life
Matches have almost disappeared from city life in Vietnam, replaced by gas lighters, which smell completely different. It is a smell being lost within a single generation, and many people born after 2000 have never smelled it.