English
exsiccation
Exsiccation comes from Latin exsicco ‘to dry up’, and goes back to siccus.
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEsiccus‘dry’
- Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEsiccō‘to dry, drain, exhaust’
- Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEexsicco‘to dry up’
- Late Latinc. 200–600 CEexsiccatio
- Englishearliest quotation 1658exsiccation
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed
Earlier history uncertain.
Lineage
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEsiccus‘dry’
- Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEsiccō‘to dry, drain, exhaust’
- Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEexsicco‘to dry up’
- Late Latinc. 200–600 CEexsiccatio
- Englishearliest quotation 1658exsiccation
Earliest quotation: 1658, Sir Thomas Browne, Pseudodoxia Epidemica: “That which is concreted by exsiccation or expression of…”
Linked words
through Proto-Indo-European *sek- ‘to cut, cut off, sever’
saw, risk, sex, design, ship, sign, sexual, section, seal, segment, insect, sawyer, scarlet, sax, het, shingle, dissect, sickle, scythe, seg, sedge, sich, sigil, sain, brassica, 61 more
through Latin siccus ‘dry’
through Latin siccō ‘to dry, drain, exhaust’
Today it means
noun The act of operation of drying; evaporation or expulsion of moisture.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / Latin siccus / exsiccation