the.com/dryness
the absence of water masquerading as a personality trait, in deserts and in jokes alike
means The state or quality of being dry — lacking moisture, or, of humor, delivered so deadpan it seems parched of feeling.
from From "dry," which goes back to Old English "dryge" (dry, withered), rooted in a Proto-Germanic word "draugiz" — kin to Dutch "droog" and German "trocken." The suffix "-ness," also Old English, simply turns a quality into a thing you can name. The witty sense — "dry humor," jokes served without a wink — is a later figurative stretch: comedy so devoid of obvious emotional moisture that, like a desert, it leaves you to supply your own.
- driest place
- parts of Atacama saw no rain for centuries
- humor type
- deadpan delivery comedians call dry wit
- skin science
- low humidity pulls moisture straight from your epidermis
- preservation trick
- mummies and jerky both owe everything to dryness
- static spark
- dry winter air lets electrons jump and zap you
atacama desert — driest place on earth, some areas have never recorded rainfall in recorded history
death valley — hottest place in north america, receives less than 2 inches of rain annually in california
wadi rum jordan — desert region with less than 50mm annual precipitation, used as filming location for mars scenes