means Slightly wet or damp, in that clinging, humid way that coats a surface without soaking it.

from From Middle English moiste, borrowed from Old French moiste meaning 'damp, wet.' The Latin trail is tangled: it likely braids together mucidus ('moldy, slimy,' from mucus) with musteus ('fresh, new,' as in must, freshly pressed grape juice). So the word's deep ancestry is split between the rot we recoil from and the sweetness of new wine — fittingly conflicted for a term people love to hate.