The marketing minds behind Kraft Brand Mayonnaise sent an 8-foot replica of a jar of mayonnaise to the offices of Merriam-Webster. According to their Instagram post, this gift of "the moistest delivery the world has ever seen" was sent as part of a campaign to get the dictionary to declare the adjective "moist" as the next word of the year. The back of the gigantic jar reads:
Dear Dictionary Gatekeepers,
Here is a 2023 pound jar of Kraft Real Mayo aka the Moist Maker, aka the Moistiest.
For years, we've watched "moist" be degraded by the internet... the media deeming it "universally" hated.
We won't let this slander go on any longer! Our mayo is indisputable evidence that moist is a great word, and that every meal is better moist!
Since you've done nothing to redeem its true meaning, we'll keep searching "moist and hack your competition.
With America's help, we'll make Moist your Word of the Year.
Moistly, Kraft Real Mayo
I learned about this through a social media post by my friends at Johnson's Dictionary Online. I think Kraft would be quite satisfied with Johnson's second definition for moist (and they may also enjoy the quote by Blackmore for use in their campaign combatting dry food):
MOIST. adj. [moiste, moite, French.]
1. Wet, not dry; wet, not liquid; wet in a small degree.
Why were the moist in number so outdone,
That to a thousand dry they are but one. Blackmore.
Many who live well in a dry air, fall into all the diseases that depend upon a relaxation in a moist one. Arbuthnot.
Nor yet, when moist Arcturus clouds the sky,
The woods and fields their pleasing toils deny. Pope.
2. Juicy; succulent. Ains.
This explicit sense of yummy juiciness is absent from The Century Dictionary a century later, but the usage notes there do note that, in contrast to synonyms like dank and damp, moist is generally used in positive connotations. There's no feeling of ickiness attached to its use. Unfortunately, The Century Dictionary has not survived, so Kraft can't petition their offices for assistance in throwing off the online squeamishness around moist.
moist (moist), a. and n. [< M.E. moist, moyst < OF. moiste, F. moite, damp, moist, < L. musteus, new, fresh, < mustum, new wine, mustus, new, fresh: see must2.] I. a. 1. New; fresh. [Obsolete or prov. Eng.]
Hire hosen weren of fyn scarlet reed,
Ful streyte y-teyd, and shoos ful moyste and newe. Chaucer, Gen. Prol. to C. T., l. 457.
2. Damp; slightly wet; suffused with wetness in a moderate degree: as, moist air; a moist hand.
In places drie and hoote we must assigne
Hem mooldes moist, and ther as it is colde. Palladius, Husbondrie (E. E. T. S.), p. 81.
The hills to their [the clouds'] supply
Vapour, and exhalation, dusk and moist,
Sent up amain. Milton, P. L., xi. 741.
Moist chamber, a chamber which enables objects under microscopic examination to remain moist, and be studied without intervention of thin glass. Micrographic Dict. — Moist color. See color. — Moist gangrene. See gangrene, 1. — Moist gum. Same as dextrine. =Syn. 2. Damp, Dank, Moist, Humid. Damp is generally applied where the slight wetness has come from without, and also where it is undesirable or unpleasant: as, a damp cellar, damp sheets, a damp evening. Dank strongly suggests a disagreeable, chilling, or unwholesome moistness. Moist may be a general word, but it is rarely used where the wetness is merely external or where it is unpleasant: as, a moist sponge, a moist hand, moist leather. "If we said the ground was moist, we should probably mean in a favorable condition for vegetation; if we said it was damp, we should probably mean that we ought to be careful about walking upon it." (C. J. Smith, Synonyms Discriminated, p. 293.) Humid is a literary or scientific term for moist, but would be applicable only to that which is so penetrated with moisture that the moisture seems a part of it: as, humid ground, but not a humid sponge or hand.
Combing out her long black hair
Damp from the river. Tennyson, Princess, iv.
My lips were wet, my throat was cold,
My garments all were dank. Coleridge, Ancient Mariner.
Give me your hand; this hand is moist, my lady. Shak., Othello, iii. 4. 36.
Growths of jasmine turn'd
Their humid arms festooning tree to tree. Tennyson, Fair Women.
II. n. Wetness; wet; moisture.
So, too much Moist, which (vnconcoct within)
The Liuer spreads betweixt the flesh and skin,
Puffs vp the Patient, stops the pipes and pores
Of Excrements. Sylvester, tr. of Du Bartas's Weeks, i. 2.