aliment

English

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈa.lɪ.mənt/

Noun

aliment (countable and uncountable, plural aliments)

1. (now rare) Food.
2. (figuratively) Nourishment, sustenance.
   • Francis Bacon

     aliments of their sloth and weakness

   • 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

Anagrams

• ailment, maltine, netmail

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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

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

• alimentation

Further reading

• “aliment” in le Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

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