aridus

Latin

Alternative forms

• ārdus (less common, contracted form)

Etymology

From āreō (“I am dry, I am parched”) +‎ -idus.

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [ˈaː.rɪ.dʊs]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [ˈaː.ri.dus]

Adjective

āridus (feminine ārida, neuter āridum, superlative āridissimus); first/second-declension adjective

1. dry, parched, withered, arid

   Montes aridi sterilesque.

   Parched and barren mountains.

   Arida ligna.

   Dry wood.

   Terra arida et sicca.

   An arid and dry ground.

2. (used substantively)
   • c. 52 BCE, Julius Caesar, Commentarii de Bello Gallico 4.24:

     […] cum illī aut ex āridō aut paulum in aquam prōgressī, omnibus membrīs expedītīs, nōtissimīs locīs […] .

     […] meanwhile, [the Britons], either [fighting] from the dry [land] or having waded only slightly into the surf, had all their limbs free and knew the ground perfectly […] .

3. (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.

4. (rhetorical style, orators) uninspired, jejune, spiritless

   Aridi magistri.

   Uninspired teachers.

   Sicci omnino atque aridi pueri.

   Sapless lads, altogether, and dry.

5. (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”)

Declension

First/second-declension adjective.

	singular				plural
	masculine	feminine	neuter		masculine	feminine	neuter
nominative	āridus	ārida	āridum		āridī	āridae	ārida
genitive	āridī	āridae	āridī		āridōrum	āridārum	āridōrum
dative	āridō	āridae	āridō		āridīs
accusative	āridum	āridam	āridum		āridōs	āridās	ārida
ablative	āridō	āridā	āridō		āridīs
vocative	āride	ārida	āridum		āridī	āridae	ārida

Derived terms

• ārdeō
• ārida
• āridīs manibus
• āriditās
• āridum

Descendants

• Catalan: àrreu
• → Catalan: àrid
• → English: arid
• → French: aride
• → Galician: árido
• → Italian: arido
• → Portuguese: árido
• → Spanish: árido

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)