1854 R. G. Mayne Expos. Lexicon Med. Sci. (1860) Hydricus, of or belonging to water; applied to the compounds of a simple body with hydrogen: hydric.

1870 Eng. Mech. 18 Feb. 565/3 Aqueous hydric-chloride.

1876 J. Harley Royle's Man. Materia Med. (ed. 6) 101 Hydric Cyanide was called Prussic acid.

1926 Cooper & Weese in Ecology VII. 390 In order..to provide terms which shall be applicable to both plants and animals, we suggest that the adjectives ‘xerophytic’, ‘hydrophytic’ and ‘mesophytic’ be entirely abandoned as useless and misleading. In their place we offer the terms ‘xeric’, ‘hydric’ and ‘mesic’, to be defined as follows: Xeric (hydric, mesic): characterized by or pertaining to conditions of scanty (abundant, medium) moisture supply.

1947 R. F. Daubenmire Plants & Environment iii. 148 Hydric, xeric, and mesic are commonly encountered in ecologic literature... These adjectives, if used, should be applied only to habitats.

1960 N. Polunin Introd. Plant Geogr. xi. 328 Typically this mean [between two seres] is inhabited by mesophytes and is said to be ‘mesic’, though relatively xeric (dry) and hydric (damp) exceptions exist.

1968 R. F. Daubenmire Plant Communities iii. 116 Bare areas may be classified according to their characteristic water relations: wet or hydric, as a pond bottom; dry or xeric, as a rock surface exposed to the sun; or intermediate mesic, as a glacial moraine.