vegetable

Definitions

veget (from vegetāre, 'to enliven, to grow') + -able ('able to'). Medieval Latin vegetābilis meant 'able to grow, lively' — so a vegetable was first just 'a growing, living thing,' i.e. a plant. Only later did it narrow to the edible plants on your plate.

Why It Means This

The surprise here is that vegetable belongs to the 'life' root at all. The connection is the old sense of vegetāre — not 'plant' but 'to make lively, to grow.' A vegetable was anything with that growing life-force, i.e. a plant; the food meaning is a later narrowing. The original 'merely growing, no higher activity' shade survives in the verb vegetate.

Example Sentences

• 1.

  Try to eat plenty of fresh fruit and vegetables every day.

• 2.

  The soup is made with vegetable stock instead of meat.

• 3.

  They sell vegetable oil in large bottles at the market.