siccitas Latin · revision 33131

+ {{infobox|confidence=established|formation=derivation|attested=c. 250–184 BC, Plautus}}

+

+ ==Forms==

+ '''siccitās''' ''f'' (genitive siccitātis); third declension^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ It is [[af|la|siccus|-tās|t1=dry]].^(OLD 2012)^(Köbler 2010) De Vaan calls the etymology of [[m|la|siccus]] uncertain: it may belong with [[ine-pro|*si-sk-u-|t=dry]], seen in [[ae|hišku-|t=dry]] and [[mga|sesc|t=dry, barren]], but how that could give the Latin form is unclear;^(de Vaan 2008) Ernout and Meillet and Pokorny instead connect it with a root meaning to pour.^(de Vaan 2008)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ Plautus uses it in the ''Rudens'', of excessive dryness.^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ It is dryness, especially of weather, and drought: Cicero writes of a stream running well in a great drought,^(OLD 2012) and of the dry land at Sipontum.^(OLD 2012) Caesar uses the plural of marshes dried up.^(OLD 2012) Of the body, Varro has the healthy firmness the Persians gained from exercise.^(OLD 2012) Of style it is dryness or aridity, as in the ''Brutus''.^(OLD 2012) Lewis & Short note that it is frequent and classical, in singular and plural.^(Lewis & Short 1879) Stelten gives “drought, dryness”, and in British Medieval Latin Bede has the dryness of the desert.^(Stelten 1995)^(DMLBS)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * c. 250–184 BC – Plautus, of being parched.^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * 116–27 BC – Varro, of bodily firmness.^(OLD 2012)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * 81–43 BC – Cicero, of drought and of a dry style.^(OLD 2012)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * c. 50 BC – Caesar, of dried-up marshes.^(OLD 2012)^(Köbler 2010)

+

+ ==Meanings==

+ ===Noun===

+ # [[m|en|dryness|alt=Dryness]]; dry weather, [[m|en|drought]]; dried-up ground.^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Wiktionary)

+ # Dryness of the body, freedom from excess moisture; excessive dryness.^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879)

+ # Dryness, [[m|en|aridity]] (of style).^(OLD 2012)

+

+ ==Related words==

+ * [[siccus]]

+ * [[siccō]]

+ * [[exsiccō]]

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}