vegetable

English

Alternative forms

Etymology

Etymology tree
Proto-Italic *weg-o-der.?
Proto-Indo-European *weǵ-
Proto-Indo-European *-yeti
Proto-Indo-European *-éyeti
Proto-Indo-European *woǵéyetider.
Proto-Italic *wogeōder.?
Latin vegeō
Latin vegetus
Latin vegetāre, vegetō
Proto-Indo-European *-dʰlom
Proto-Italic *-ðlom
Proto-Italic *-ðlis
Latin -bilis
Latin vegetābilisbor.
Old French vegetablebor.
Middle English vegetable
English vegetable

    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.

    Pronunciation

    • (Received Pronunciation, General American, Canada) IPA(key): /ˈvɛd͡ʒ.tə.bəl/, [ˈvɛd͡ʒ.tə.bɫ̩]
      • Audio (London):(file)
      • Audio (California):(file)
    • (UK, dialectal) IPA(key): /ˈvɛd͡ʒ.ə.tə.bəl/, [ˈvɛd͡ʒ.ə.tə.bɫ̩]
    • (US, Canada, dialectal) IPA(key): /ˈvɛt͡ʃ.tə.bəl/
    • (Australia, New Zealand) IPA(key): /ˈved͡ʒ.tə.bəl/, [ˈved͡ʒ.tə.bɫ̩]
    • (North India) IPA(key): /ˌvɛdʒɪˈʈebəl/
    • (South India) IPA(key): /ˈvɛdʒɪʈəbɪl/

    Noun

    vegetable (plural vegetables)

    1. (archaic) Any plant.
      • 1837, The Edinburgh New Philosophical Journal, volume 23, page 222:
        That he might ascertain whether any of the cloths of ancient Egypt were made of hemp, M. Dutrochet has examined with the microscope the weavable filaments of this last vegetable.
      • 1881–1882, Robert Louis Stevenson, Treasure Island, London; Paris: Cassell & Company, published 14 November 1883, →OCLC:
        The first of the tall trees was reached, and by the bearings proved the wrong one. So with the second. The third rose nearly two hundred feet into the air above a clump of underwood — a giant of a vegetable, with a red column as big as a cottage, and a wide shadow around in which a company could have manoeuvred.
    2. 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, and usually including non-plants lumped into the same culinary category, such as edible mushrooms and seaweed.
      Synonyms: (informal) veg, (informal) veggie
      • 2025 January 13, Gina Kolata, “Have Americans Ever Really Been Healthy?”, in The New York Times‎[1], New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 14 January 2025:
        It’s true that agriculture at the time was organic, food was locally produced and there were no ultraprocessed foods. But fresh fruits and vegetables were in short supply because they were difficult to ship and because growing seasons were so short.
    3. The edible part of such a plant.
      Synonyms: (informal) veg, (informal) veggie
    4. (figuratively, often derogatory) 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.
      Synonym: cabbage
    5. (RAF, slang, historical) A mine (explosive device).

    Derived terms

    Translations

    See vegetable/translations § Noun.

    Adjective

    vegetable (not comparable)

    1. Of or relating to plants.
      This substance is vegetable, not mineral.
    2. Of or relating to vegetables.

    Descendants

    • Krio: vɛjitebul
    • Tok Pisin: vejetebel
    • → Fanagalo: vejetebel

    Translations

    Further reading

    Spanish

    Noun

    vegetable m (plural vegetables)

    1. (US) vegetable

    Adjective

    vegetable m or f (masculine and feminine plural vegetables)

    1. (uncommon) vegetable

    Further reading

    This page is issued from Wiktionary. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.