A bit of a niche question, to be sure, but how did people think about water evaporation? Leaving water out on a hot, sunny day will noticeably reduce it, as will boiling it for a while. How was this property of water explained?

Was it just understood that when water gets hot enough, it turns into a steam-like substance (and left at that), or was this property of water worked into greater pre-scientific epistemological systems?