Etymograph

English

desiccate

Desiccate comes from Latin dēsiccō ‘to dry completely, dry up’, and goes back to siccus.

  1. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEsiccus1‘dry’
  2. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEsiccō1‘to dry’
  3. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEdēsiccō1‘to dry completely, dry up’
  4. Englishearliest quotation 1631desiccate1

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, English desiccate
  2. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1631, Francis Bacon: “[…] As in Bodies deſsiccate, by Heat, or Age;…”.

Earlier history uncertain. See Wiktionary.

Lineage

  1. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEsiccusWiktionary, English desiccate‘dry’
  2. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEsiccōWiktionary, English desiccate‘to dry’
  3. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEdēsiccōWiktionary, English desiccate‘to dry completely, dry up’
  4. Englishearliest quotation 1631desiccateWiktionary, English desiccate. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1631, Francis Bacon: “[…] As in Bodies deſsiccate, by Heat, or Age;…”

Formed from dēsiccō ‘to dry completely, dry up’ + -ate

Linked words

through Proto-Indo-European *sek- ‘to dry up’

saw, sex, risk, section, ship, sign, sexual, seal, segment, insect, sawyer, scarlet, sax, het, shingle, dissect, sickle, scythe, seg, sedge, sich, sigil, sain, brassica, 64 more

through Latin siccus ‘dry’

sack, 11 more

Another origin of desiccate

  1. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEdēsiccātus‘dried up’
  2. Englishtodaydesiccate

Today it means

verb To remove moisture from; to dry; (sometimes) to dry to an extreme degree.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “desiccate”. By Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0, via kaikki.org (dump of Oct 3 2026); text adapted and restructured. Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word. License.

Etymograph / Latin siccus / desiccate

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