What makes water wet, when some other liquids aren't?

Question

I was taught in Chemistry that a liquid can only be considered wet if water is involved. Therefore you can have a dry liquid eg, mercury. So what makes water have this tendency to be wet but not other liquids.

Answer 1

It has to do with the word "wet." It refers to water (the exact same old English root word).

Wet hair from a shower, a baby's wet diaper, the grass wet with dew, a slippery wet road, the wet spray from a boat, shoes wet from a puddle, dry the wet dishes or laundry -- these all involve water or a water based solution. Wet Paint is one of the few exceptions but the phrase goes back to the days when water was used in paint.

For the same reason water or aqueous solutions are the only ones which can never be "dry." The term in organic chemistry (where there are very many liquids used other than water) is anhydrous (without water).

Often during an extraction involving water and another liquid (for example, diethyl ether or dichloromethane), after the liquids are separated, the wet organic layer (which contains trace amounts of water) is dried by using a solid like magnesium sulfate and then filtered.

Answer 2

I think it has something to do with capillary action and the water sticking to your skin, most other liquids will just fall off and not leave anyhting behind...