aliment

English

Etymology

From French aliment, and its source, Latin alimentum (“food”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA: /ˈalɪmənt/

Noun

aliment (plural aliments)

1. (now rare) Food.
2. (figuratively) Nourishment, sustenance.
   • 1978, Lawrence Durrell, Livia, Faber & Faber 1992 (Avignon Quintet), p. 356:

     All this monotony might be a good aliment for a poet but what if one had no gifts?

Verb

aliment (third-person singular simple present aliments, present participle alimenting, simple past and past participle alimented)

1. (obsolete) To feed, nourish.
2. To sustain, support.
   • 2002, Colin Jones, The Great Nation, Penguin 2003, p. 434:

     Yet there would also be many – and not simply the powerful and ultra-privileged – who lost out, and whose discontent operated as a kind of political yeast, alimenting ‘unpatriotic’ thoughts and acts.

Related terms

• alimentary
• alimentary canal
• alimony

Anagrams

• ailment

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Catalan

Noun

aliment m (plural aliments)

1. (piece of) food

Derived terms

• alimentar

See also

• menjar m

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French

Pronunciation

• Audio

  (file)

Noun

aliment m (plural aliments)

1. food

Related terms

• alimentation

Anagrams

• mailent

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Middle French

Noun

aliment m (plural alimens)

1. item of food

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Romanian

Noun

aliment n

1. food (any substance consumed by living organisms to sustain life)

Synonyms

• mâncare