moisture

Etymology

From Middle English moisture, from Old French moistour (“moisture, dampness, wetness”). Compare French moiteur.

noun

1. That which moistens or makes damp or wet; exuding fluid; liquid in small quantity.
   drops / beads of moisture
   The sage—low-growing and shrubby—could hold its place on the mountain slopes and on the plains, and within its small gray leaves it could hold moisture enough to defy the thieving winds. 1962, Rachel Carson, chapter 6, in Silent Spring, Boston: Houghton Mifflin, page 65
2. The state of being moist.
   Such was the discord, which did first disperse Forme, order, beauty through the universe; While drynesse moisture, coldnesse heat resists, All that we have, and that we are subsists: 1643, John Denham, Coopers Hill, page 7
   [The organs of touch are excited] by the unceasing variations of the heat, moisture, and pressure of the atmosphere; 1794, Erasmus Darwin, Zoonomia, London: J. Johnson, Volume 1, Section 7, I.1, p. 39
3. (medicine) Skin moisture noted as dry, moist, clammy, or diaphoretic as part of the skin signs assessment.