Desiccation
/ˌdɛsɪˈkeɪʃən/noun
The process of drying out or becoming thoroughly dry.
Did you know?The word comes from Latin desiccāre, literally “to make very dry,” built from de- (“completely”) + siccus (“dry”), and it entered English through French and scholarly Latin.
Etymological Timeline
Proto-Indo-European
PIE
*sek-
“to dry up, be dry”
Latin
Latin
siccus
“dry”
Late Latin
Latin
desiccare
“to dry thoroughly, make dry”
Old French
Old French
desiccacion
“drying out; the act of making dry”
14th–16th Century
English
desiccacioun / desiccation
“the act or process of drying out”
Modern English
English
desiccation
“the process of drying out or becoming thoroughly dry”