763-1: Feedback, notes and comments

Siccity Several readers noted the survival in medical terminology of the Latin original of this word, sicca. Eric Hoy wrote, "There is sicca syndrome, in which patients have dry eyes and a dry mouth, due to an autoimmune response that attacks the tear glands and the salivary glands." Beth Ayers added, "We also occasionally see siccolabile (altered or destroyed by drying) and siccostabile (unaffected by drying). For those of us who speak the esoteric version of English sometimes called Medicalese, sicca still rings a bell." There's also rhinitis sicca, in which the mucous membranes of the nose are abnormally dry.

Yea and nay Jean Carpenter and others added to my French connection of si as a contradiction of a negative by mentioning the German doch, used similarly. Remy Rosenbaum noted a formal survival of both English words: "at least in American English, as a response to a vote in Congress, the request for a roll call vote is known as the Yeas and Nays." (In the British Parliament, it's ayes and noes.)