Latin

Alternative forms

• ārdus (less common, contracted form)

Adjective

āridus m ‎(feminine ārida, neuter āridum); first/second declension

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. (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.

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

   Aridi magistri.

   Uninspired teachers.

   Sicci omnino atque aridi pueri.

   Sapless lads, altogether, and dry.

4. (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”))

Derived terms

• (substantively) āridum n

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 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”)

Inflection

First/second declension.

Descendants

• English: arid (borrowed)
• French: aride
• Italian: arido
• 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
• Félix Gaffiot (1934), “aridus”, in Dictionnaire Illustré Latin-Français, Paris: Hachette.
• Meissner, Carl; Auden, Henry William (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)