[ad. L. āriditas, f. ārid-us: see ARID and -ITY. Cf. Fr. aridité.] Arid state or quality, parched or withered condition, lack of moisture, dryness, barrenness; spec. in early medical use, of the state of the body.
1599. A. M., trans. Gabelhouer’s Bk. Physic, 209/1. The Consumptione, or ariditye of the Ioynctes.
1731. Arbuthnot, Aliments, 90 (J.). Salt taken in great Quantities will reduce an Animal Body to the great extremity of Aridity or Dryness.
1796. Morse, Amer. Geog., II. 601. They [winds] are of … extreme heat and aridity.
1835. Thirlwall, Greece, I. iii. 65. The natural aridity of a part of the Argive soil.
2. fig. Dryness, lack of interest; ‘in the theological sense a kind of insensibility in devotion, contrary to unction or tenderness.’ J.
1692. Dryden, St. Euremont’s Ess., 347. That sad State which is called Aridity and Dryness in Monasteries.
1765. Tucker, Lt. Nat., II. 36. We hear them complain of frequent coolness, aridities, and desertions.
1865. Lecky, Ration. (1878), I. 342. The excessive aridity of scholasticism.
1882. G. Chrystal, in Nature, XXVI. 217. The aridities of modern English mathematical text-books.
