siccity

From Latin siccitas, from siccus (“dry”).

siccity (usually uncountable, plural siccities)

1. (formal, rare) Dryness.
   • 1624, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy: , 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, →OCLC:
     , Book I, New York, 2001, page 156:

     To the preservation of life the natural heat is most requisite, though siccity and humidity be not excluded.

   • 1875, Marietta Holley, My Opinions and Betsey Bobbet's, Hartford, Conn.: American Publishing Company, page 172:

     The Lumincus Lamp of Progression, whose sciatherical shadows falling upon earthly matter, not promoting sciolism, or Siccity, may it illumine humanity as it tardigradely floats from matter's aquius wastes, to minds majestic and apyrous climes.

   • 1902, Watson Bradshaw, "Medea", Act III., in The Ten Tragedies of Seneca, page 431:

     so long as the polar heavens regulate the movement of the Northern Bear, and preserve it, in its siccity (the Bears are called "siccæ", or dry, as they never set)

   • 2006, Joseph A. Munk, Arizona Sketches, ReadHowYouWant.com, →ISBN, page 124:

     Only by extreme siccity is such land possible when more water rises in evaporation than falls by precipitation.

   • 2007, Patricia Arlabosse, Jean-Henry Ferrasse, Didier Lecomte, Michel Crine, Yohann Dumont, Angélique Léonard, “Efficient sludge thermal processing: from drying to thermal valorization”, in Evangelos Tsotsas, Arun S. Mujumdar, editors, Modern Drying Technology, Energy Savings, John Wiley & Sons, →ISBN, page 319:

     At least regarding combustion, it is advisable to derive conditions for the auto-ignition of the wet sewage sludge from an enthalpy balance with a flame temperature of 600 °C. This generally gives values of siccity close to 50%.

• desiccate
• desiccation
• exsiccation