Skip to content
word of the day

The word for today is…

desiccate (verb) –

1 : to dry up
2 : to preserve (a food) by drying
3 : to drain of emotional or intellectual vitality

Source : Merriam -Webster

Etymology : Raisins are desiccated grapes; they’re also dehydrated grapes. And yet, a close look at the etymologies of desiccate and dehydrate raises a tangly question. In Latin siccus means “dry,” whereas the Greek stem hydr- means “water.” So how could it be that desiccate and dehydrate are synonyms? The answer is in the multiple identities of the prefix de-. It may look like the same prefix, but the de- in desiccate means “completely, thoroughly,” as in despoil (“to spoil utterly”) or denude (“to strip completely bare”). The de- in dehydrate, on the other hand, means “remove,” the same as it does in defoliate (“to strip of leaves”) or in deice (“to rid of ice”).

If you enjoyed this BFD word of the day please consider sharing it with your friends and, especially, your children.

Latest