Water is not wet. Or is it? This debate was going on for a while and I found the need to address the situation. Millennials have once again proved that we can raise the very intense and troubling issues of society – this obviously being one of the most debated topics of 2017. But all you water-is-wet-believers out there listen up because WATER IS NOT WET (or maybe it is tbh I am still not completely sure, read on).
I’ve thoroughly done my research. I’ve looked through hashtags, questioned others’ opinions, watched videos of people explaining their ‘philosophies’, heck I even passed Gen Chem one and two. For a while I was sitting on the fence, but then Merriam-Webster, blurred the line between 'wet' and 'not wet' even more... so I’m still on that fence.
Merriam-Webster defines wet as an adjective.
The first definition is:
1. : consisting of, containing, covered with, or soaked with liquid (such as water)
Okay so after reading this definition I thought this was it, this proves that yes, in fact, water IS wet. Because water consists of and contains a liquid (aka itself). BUT wait there’s more.
The second definition is:
2. : RAINY; 'wet' weather
So here it defines wet as “rainy”, which if you think about it, rain is composed of water. So, does that mean when it rains people say it’s wet outside because water is falling from the sky and the water is wet??
The third is:
3. : still moist enough to smudge or smear; 'wet' paint
Alrighty folks, you most definitely can smudge or smear water right? Like when you have extra water on your hands when you don’t have the patience to let the hand dryer finish its job so you smear that extra water on your clothes or other things to get it off. So water is definitely “still moist enough to smudge or smear” – so water is wet???
The fourth refers to being drunk or selling alcohol so we’ll skip that one.
The fifth is:
5. : preserved in liquid
TECHNICALLY water is preserved in itself, right? If you analyze a single water particle within the other water particles can’t you say that the water surrounding the water particle is wet? Idk think about it.
And the sixth is:
6. : employing or done by means of or in the presence of water or other liquid; 'wet' extraction of copper
I don’t know which side this definition supports so I’ll leave it up to you.
There are two more definitions of wet as an adjective but they don’t pertain to the liquidy definition that we’re looking for. So… is water wet?
