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moist

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Pronunciation

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English moiste,[2][3] borrowed from Old French moiste (“damp, wet, soaked”),[4][5][6] also Anglo-Norman moist and moste,[6] now moite.[6][3][7] The Anglo-Norman adjective is recorded from the second quarter of the 12th century.[8] The origin of the French word is uncertain and disputed.[6][4][9] Most dictionaries derive it from Vulgar Latin *muscidus (“mouldy”), an altered form of Latin mūcidus (“slimy, mouldy, musty”),[10][5][11][12] from mūcus (“slime”),[10][13][5] and take the change of form as due to the influence of musteus (“juicy, fresh, like new wine”), from mustum (“new wine”), the source of must.[10][11][5][7][12] Ayto suggests that *muscidus shifted from "mouldy" to "wet" before it passed into French.[13] Diez, followed by Weekley, derived the word from musteus alone,[4][14] and Skeat listed both views together with a third, Hatzfeld's late form of mūcidus.[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Slightly wet; not dry: in Barnhart in 1373,[5] and in the OED from before 1382, in the early version of the Wycliffite Bible.[6] The OED's verb moist, to become moist, is recorded slightly earlier, perhaps before 1350, and may be borrowed from Anglo-Norman and Middle French rather than formed from the adjective.[6]

Semantic evolution

In Middle English the word often meant "fresh, new": Chaucer used it of new, supple shoes and of fresh ale, and Langland of fruit,[6][14][3][12] senses that Weekley traces to the Latin musteus.[14] It was also used of juicy, succulent plants (from 1382) and of eyes wet with tears (about 1390).[6] From Gower (before 1393) it named one of the four qualities of medieval science, opposed to "dry";[6][11] Chaucer and Gower also used moist as a noun for that quality.[2] Its sense "liquid, watery" lasted until the 17th century.[6][11] Weather and climates have been moist since 1398, in Trevisa,[6] and in medicine the word has described conditions with a discharge of fluid since the same year.[6] Ayto notes that the derived adjective moisty existed from the 15th to the 17th century, and that musty is thought to be an alteration of it.[13][9] In the 20th century it acquired a sexual sense (1958),[6] and the Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins notes that it once topped a newspaper poll of the most disliked English words, though unlike damp it can be favourable, as of a cake.[9]

Timeline

  • 1373 – slightly wet, not dry.[5]
  • before 1382 – slightly wet; also of plants, juicy, fresh.[6]
  • c. 1387–95 – of a shoe, new and supple (now obsolete).[6]
  • c. 1390 – of beer, fresh; of eyes, wet with tears.[6]
  • before 1393 – one of the four elemental qualities; liquid, watery (obsolete by 1653).[6]
  • before 1398 – of a season or climate, wet, rainy.[6]
  • 1958 – sexually aroused.[6]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. Slightly wet; damp: Keep the soil moist until the seeds sprout.[15][6]
  2. Full of or bringing moisture; humid or rainy: a moist climate.[15][6]
  3. Of food, pleasantly soft and not dried out.[6][9]
  4. Of the eyes, wet with tears.[6]
  5. (medicine) Accompanied by a discharge of fluid, mucus or pus.[6]
  6. In ancient and medieval science, having the quality of wetness that was one of the four qualities of the elements, opposed to dry.[11][6]
  7. (obsolete) Juicy, succulent.[11][6]
  8. (obsolete) Liquid, watery.[11][6]

Verb

  1. (archaic or dialect) To moisten.[11][6][16]

Word family

  • moistly
  • moistness
  • moistful
  • moistless
  • overmoist
  • semimoist
  • moisten
  • overmoisten

Usage notes

In Scots and in Yorkshire, Lancashire and Somerset dialect, moist was still used as a verb, to moisten, and in Lancashire as a noun for a fog or mist.[17] In American slang moist has meant an alcoholic drink (from 1899), and on campuses "second-rate, bad".[18]

References

  1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b Benson, Larry D., Glossarial Concordance to Middle English (Chaucer, Gower), Johns Hopkins University, github.com/jhu-digital-manuscripts/gcme
  3. ^ a b c d Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  4. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  5. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 28 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  7. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  8. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
  9. ^ a b c d Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  10. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  11. ^ a b c d e f g h Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  12. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  13. ^ a b c Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
  14. ^ a b c Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
  15. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  16. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  17. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
  18. ^ Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com