vegetable
/ˈvɛd͡ʒ.tə.bəl/ · noun
Meaning
- Any plant.
- A plant raised for some edible part of it, such as the leaves, roots, fruit or flowers, but excluding any plant considered to be a fruit, grain, herb, or spice in the culinary sense.
- The edible part of such a plant.
- A person whose brain (or, infrequently, whose body) has been damaged to the point that they cannot interact with the surrounding environment; a person in a persistent vegetative state.
- A mine (explosive device).
- Of or relating to plants.
- Of or relating to vegetables.
Etymology / origin
From Middle English vegetable, from Old French vegetable, from Latin vegetābilis (“able to live and grow”), derived from vegetāre (“to enliven”). Displaced Old English wyrt and ofett, whence modern wort and ovest. Related to vigil, vigour, vajra, and waker.
- wyrt and ofett(ang)→
- vegetābilis(la)→
- vegetable(fro)→
- vegetable(enm)→
- *weǵ-(ine-pro)→
- vegetable (English)
- Relations: root, inh, der, der, cog
Related words
Descendant words
- ベジタブル(Japanese) (bor)
- vejetebel(Tok Pisin) (der)
Sources
No citations have been attached yet.