dryness

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English drynesse,^[2][3] also drinesse,^[4] inherited from Old English drȳgnes,^[2][5] also drignes,^[5] formed from drȳge (“dry”) and -nes.^[2][6] The adjective goes back to Proto-Germanic *draugiz.^[6] The OED, in an entry first published in 1897 and not fully revised, takes the noun as formed within English from dry and -ness and gives no Old English form.^[7][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

In Old English the word meant lack of moisture, and Bosworth-Toller glosses it with Latin siccitās: a medical passage in the Leechdoms forbids honey and prescribes old wine “for the dryness”.^[5] It also meant dry land, translating ārida in Genesis 1.^[5] The OED's first record is Trevisa's translation of Bartholomew de Glanville (1398): “Dryenesse spoyllyth the heed of the heer and makyth it ballyd.”^[7]

Semantic evolution

The physical sense has never lapsed, and Johnson (1755) still led with “want of moisture; siccity”, adding “want of succulence”.^[9][7] From about 1450 the word was applied to the feelings, in a translation of Thomas à Kempis, for an absence of emotion or fervour, and later for coldness of manner.^[7] Mapping Metaphor records this link between dryness and lack of emotion from the second half of the 15th century, and one with insufficiency from the first half of the 17th.^[10] Jonson's Timber (before 1637) used it of style, for plainness and dullness.^[7] The sense “thirst”, recorded from before 1535, is obsolete or only informal.^[7] In the 20th century the word followed the adjective dry into talk of alcohol: Twain's Speeches (1910) has it for prohibition,^[7] and Merriam-Webster Unabridged records the sobriety of a former alcoholic.^[2]

Timeline

• Old English – lack of moisture; dry land.^[5]
• before 1398 – a dry place, dry land (obsolete by 1450).^[7]
• 1398 – the condition of being dry, lack of moisture.^[7]
• c. 1450 – absence of emotion or fervour; coldness of feeling.^[7]
• before 1535 – thirst.^[7]
• 1625 – the condition of being dried up; failure, in Bacon (obsolete).^[7]
• before 1637 – lack of embellishment or interest; dullness.^[7]
• 1910 – absence of alcohol; prohibition.^[7]

Meanings

Noun

1. The state of being dry; lack of moisture: The dryness of the summer cracked the clay.^[2][7]
2. Lack of emotional warmth or fervour; coldness of manner.^[2][7]
3. Lack of interest or embellishment; monotony or plainness.^[2][7]
4. Quiet or sardonic humor.^[2]
5. Sobriety, especially in a former alcoholic.^[2]
6. The condition of being without alcohol under prohibition.^[7][8]

Related words

• dry

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
3. ^ Gove, Philip Babcock, ed. (1961), Webster's Third New International Dictionary of the English Language, Unabridged, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam
4. ^ Stratmann, Francis Henry (1891), A Middle-English Dictionary, revised by Henry Bradley, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b c d e Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
6. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
10. ^ Mapping Metaphor with the Historical Thesaurus, University of Glasgow, mappingmetaphor.arts.gla.ac.uk