aliment

English

Etymology

From French aliment, from Latin alimentum (“food”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈa.lɪ.mənt/

  • Audio (UK)

    (file)

Noun

aliment (countable and uncountable, plural aliments)

1. (now rare) Food.
2. (figuratively) Nourishment, sustenance.
   • 1597, Francis Bacon, “Of the Coulers of Good and Evill. A Fragment.”, in James Spedding, Robert Leslie Ellis, and Douglas Denon Heath, editors, The Works of Francis Bacon, […], volume VII, London: Longman, Green, and Co.; […], published 1859, OCLC 855393451, pages 90–91:

     As when Demosthenes reprehended the people for hearkening to the conditions offered by King Philip, being not honourable nor equal, he saith they were but aliments of their sloth and weakness, which if they were taken away, necessity would teach them stronger resolutions.

   • 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?

3. (Scotland) An allowance for maintenance; alimony.

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
• alimental
• alimentous

Anagrams

• ailment, maltine, netmail

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Catalan

Etymology

From Latin alimentum.

Pronunciation

• (Balearic) IPA^(key): /ə.liˈment/
• (Central) IPA^(key): /ə.liˈmen/
• (Valencian) IPA^(key): /a.liˈment/

• Audio

  (file)

Noun

aliment m (plural aliments)

1. (piece of) food

Derived terms

• alimentar

See also

• menjar

Further reading

• “aliment” in Diccionari de la llengua catalana, segona edició, Institut d’Estudis Catalans.
• “aliment”, in Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana, 2022
• “aliment” in Diccionari normatiu valencià, Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua.
• “aliment” in Diccionari català-valencià-balear, Antoni Maria Alcover and Francesc de Borja Moll, 1962.

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French

Etymology

From Latin alimentum.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /a.li.mɑ̃/

• Audio

  (file)

Noun

aliment m (plural aliments)

1. food
   • 1755, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Discours sur l’origine et les fondements de l’inégalité parmi les hommes

     C’est ainsi qu’un pigeon mourrait de faim près d’un bassin rempli des meilleures viandes, et un chat sur des tas de fruits, ou de grain, quoique l’un et l’autre pût très bien se nourrir de l’aliment qu’il dédaigne, s’il s’était avisé d’en essayer.

     Thus a pigeon would be starved to death by the side of a dish of the choicest meats, and a cat on a heap of fruit or grain; though it is certain that either might find nourishment in the foods which it thus rejects with disdain, did it think of trying them.

Related terms

• alimentaire
• alimentation
• alimenter

Descendants

• → Romanian: aliment

Further reading

• “aliment”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Anagrams

• mailent

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Middle French

Noun

aliment m (plural alimens)

1. item of food

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Occitan

Etymology

From Latin alimentum.

Pronunciation

• Audio

  (file)

Noun

aliment m (plural aliments)

1. item of food

Related terms

• alimentar
• alimentari

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Romanian

Etymology

From French aliment, from Latin alimentum.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /a.liˈment/

Noun

aliment n (plural alimente)

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

Declension

Declension of aliment

	singular		plural
	indefinite articulation	definite articulation	indefinite articulation	definite articulation
nominative/accusative	(un) aliment	alimentul	(niște) alimente	alimentele
genitive/dative	(unui) aliment	alimentului	(unor) alimente	alimentelor
vocative	alimentule		alimentelor

Synonyms

• mâncare