Watery

Part of speech: adjective

Pronunciation: /ˈwɔːtəɹi/

Definitions

1. Consisting of or resembling liquid H2O in appearance, texture, or lack of substance
2. Having a texture or consistency that is reminiscent of fluids, often appearing thin or unclear
3. Characterized by a consistency similar to liquids, often resulting in a transparent or thin quality that may evoke a sense of dilution or lack of body

Etymology: Watery is about as transparent as English gets: water with the suffix "-y", which turns a noun into an adjective meaning "full of" or "having the qualities of" the noun. The word goes back to Old English "wæteriġ", built on the same root as "water" itself, and it passed into Middle English in the form "watery" and the variant "wattry". The root in "water" is ancient, reaching back to a Proto-West Germanic form, so the word has been describing wet, thin, or pale things for well over a thousand years. The sense "thin like water" is the one most worth noticing. Water is the ordinary standard of thinness, so calling a drink, a colour, or a soup "watery" means it has lost body or strength, as if it had been diluted. The same logic gives "watery eyes" (wet with tears) and "watery sun" (pale and weak), where the word always points back to water as the thing being imitated.

Synonyms: liquid, dilute, thin, moist, runny

Antonyms: thick, viscous, dry, solid