esculent

English

Etymology

From Latin esculentus, from esca (“food”).

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ˈɛskjʊlənt/

Adjective

esculent (comparative more esculent, superlative most esculent)

1. Edible.
   • 1979, Kyril Bonfiglioli, After You with the Pistol, Penguin, published 2001, page 334:

     My custodian was now the ‘Old Bill’, the magistrate was one of those soppy, earnest chaps who long to hear of broken homes and deprived childhoods and Johanna was looking esculent in a cinnamon sheath such as you could not buy with a lifetime's trading-stamps.

Noun

esculent (plural esculents)

1. Something edible; a comestible.
   • 1997, Thomas Pynchon, Mason & Dixon:

     Meanwhile, maize and morning glories, tomatoes and cherry trees, every flower and Esculent known to Linnæus, thriv’d.

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