adust

English

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA: /əˈdʌst/

Adjective

adust (comparative more adust, superlative most adust)

1. (medicine, historical) Describing a bodily humour which is abnormally dark or over-concentrated, associated with various states of discomfort or illness (specifically being too hot or dry). (Chiefly as postmodifier.) [from 15th c.]
   • 1621, Robert Burton, The Anatomy of Melancholy, 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. (now rare) Burnt or having a scorched color. [from 15th c.]

Derived terms

• adustness