What is the Meaning of Dessication?
Etymology The word “desiccation” describes the process of drying. It is a noun formed from the verb “desiccate” from the Latin desiccatus, which is a past participle of the infinitive desiccare, “to dry up.” Siccus means “dry” in Latin. In modern Romance languages (Italian, Spanish, French), then, the word for “dry” is clearly derived from the original Latin. In Italian, the word for “dry” is “secco;” in Spanish it is “seco;” and in French it is “sec.” “Desiccate” as a Transitive Verb According to the Merriam-Webster online dictionary, the three meanings of “desiccate” as a transitive verb are to dry up, to preserve by drying, as of food, and to drain of emotional or intellectual vitality. Mark Twain used the word “desiccate” in a manner that incorporated all of these meanings in an address he gave as a presidential hopeful: “I regard the poor man, in his present condition, as so much wasted raw material. Cut up and properly canned, he might be made useful to fatten the natives of the
