- ārdus (less common, contracted form)
Etymology
From āreō (“I am dry, I am parched”) + -idus.
Adjective
āridus (feminine ārida, neuter āridum, superlative āridissimus); first/second-declension adjective
- dry, parched, withered, arid
- Montes aridi sterilesque.
- Parched and barren mountains.
Terra arida et sicca.- An arid and dry ground.
- (of things) dry, lean, meagre, shrivelled; withered (e.g. from disease)
- Uvis aridior puella passis.
- A damsel drier than the raisin'd grape.
Vita horrida atque arida.- Rough and meagre life.
- (rhetorical style, orators) uninspired, jejune, spiritless
Aridi magistri.- Uninspired teachers.
Sicci omnino atque aridi pueri.- Sapless lads, altogether, and dry.
- (slang) avaricious, someone greedy or stingy (confer the tongue-in-cheek term Argentiexterebronides (“the name of one who is skilled in extorting money; a sponger”))
Usage notes
- Sometimes used of thirst; sitis arida guttor urit (“thirst unquenched still burns all his throat”) and os aridum habens (“having a dry mouth”)
- Of a fever meaning to "cause thirst"; used with febris (“fever”) and morbus (“sickness, illness”)
- Of color; arbor folio convoluto, arido colore.
- Also used of cracking or snapping sound, as when dry wood is broken; aridus sonus and aridus fragor both refer to a dry, grating, half-crackling sound, as in aridus altis Montibus incipit audiri fragor (“a dry crackling noise begins to be heard in the high mountain forest”)
References
- “aridus”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
- “aridus”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
- aridus in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
- Carl Meißner, Henry William Auden (1894) Latin Phrase-Book, London: Macmillan and Co.
- the dry, lifeless style: oratio exilis, ieiuna, arida, exsanguis
- to haul up a boat: navem subducere (in aridum)