adust

English

Etymology

From Middle French aduste, and its source, Latin adūstus (burnt, scorched), past participle of adūrere.

Pronunciation

  • (UK) IPA(key): /əˈdʌst/

Adjective

adust

  1. (medicine, historical, usually postpositive, of a bodily humour) Abnormally dark or over-concentrated; associated with various states of discomfort or illness (specifically being too hot or dry). [from 15th c.]
    • 1621, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy, Oxford: Printed by Iohn Lichfield and Iames Short, for Henry Cripps, OCLC 216894069; The Anatomy of Melancholy: [], 2nd corrected and augmented edition, Oxford: Printed by John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, 1624, OCLC 54573970, (please specify |partition=1, 2, or 3):
      , I.1:
      But, Wecker says, from melancholy adust arises one kind; from choler another, which is most brutish; from phlegm another, which is dull; and from blood another, which is the best.
    • 1646, Thomas Browne, Pseudodoxia Epidemica, VI.12:
      [] so in fevers and hot distempers from choler adust is caused a blackness in our tongues, teeth and excretions  [] .
  2. (by extension) Hot and dry; thirsty or parched.
    • 1863, George Eliot, Romola, Volume II, Book III, Chapter XXV, page 307
      He was tired and adust with long riding; but he did not go home.
  3. (now rare) Burnt or having a scorched color. [from 15th c.]

Derived terms

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