vegetable

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   A plant or part of a plant, such as a carrot or potato, that is eaten as food.

   Eating plenty of fresh vegetables is good for your health.

2. 2
   adj

   Made from or relating to plants.

   She fried the onions in a little vegetable oil.

Appears in

Simplified etymology

Vegetable entered late Middle English both as an adjective meaning “growing as a plant” and as a noun. The adjective came from late Latin vegetabilis “animating,” while the noun came from the plural form vegetabilia; both ultimately derive from vegetare “to animate.” Related words include vegetative and vegetation, both recorded from late Middle English, and vegetate, recorded from the early 17th century. Vegetation originally meant “the power of growth.”

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.

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External links

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