compost

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Old Northern French compost (“mixture of leaves, manure, etc., for fertilizing land" also "condiment”), from Latin compositus (“composed, compouspanind”), from componere. Doublet of compote, which was taken from modern French, and composite.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈkɒmpɒst/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈkɑmpoʊst/
• Hyphenation: com‧post

Noun

compost (countable and uncountable, plural composts)

1. The decayed remains of organic matter that has rotted into a natural fertilizer

   Dig plenty of compost into clay or sandy soil to improve its structure.

   • Shakespeare

     And do not spread the compost on the weeds / To make them ranker.

   • 2014 April 21, Mary Keen, “You can still teach an old gardener new tricks: Even the hardiest of us gardeners occasionally learn useful new techniques [print version: Gardening is always ready to teach even the hardiest of us a few new tricks, 19 April 2014]”, in The Daily Telegraph (Gardening)‎^[1], page G7:

     [T]he very wet winter will have washed much of the goodness out of the soil. Homemade compost and the load of manure we get from a friendly farmer may not be enough to compensate for what has leached from the ground.

2. (obsolete) A mixture; a compound.
   • Hammond

     A sad compost of more bitter than sweet.

Derived terms

• composter
• compost heap

Translations

decayed remains of organic matter

• Bulgarian: компост m (kompóst)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 堆肥 (zh) (duīféi)

• Czech: kompost (cs) m
• Danish: kompost c
• Dutch: compost (nl) m, n
• Finnish: kompostimulta, komposti (fi)
• French: compost (fr) m
• German: Kompost (de) m
• Greek: φουσκί (el) n (fouskí), κοπρόχωμα (el) n (kopróchoma)
• Ido: komposto (io), dungo (io)

• Japanese: 堆肥 (ja) (たいひ, taihi)
• Korean: 퇴비 (ko) (toebi) (堆肥 (ko))
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: kompost m

  Nynorsk: kompost m

• Polish: kompost (pl) m
• Portuguese: composto (pt) m
• Russian: компо́ст (ru) m (kompóst), перегно́й (ru) m (peregnój)
• Slovene: kompost m
• Spanish: composta (es) f
• Vietnamese: phân trộn

Verb

compost (third-person singular simple present composts, present participle composting, simple past and past participle composted)

1. To produce compost, let organic matter decay into fertilizer

   If you compost your grass clippings, you can improve your soil.

Translations

to produce compost

• Bulgarian: компостирам (kompostiram)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: please add this translation if you can

• Czech: kompostovat
• Danish: kompostere (da)
• Dutch: composteren (nl)
• Finnish: kompostoida
• German: kompostieren (de)

• Italian: compostare
• Norwegian: kompostere
• Polish: kompostować
• Portuguese: compostar
• Russian: please add this translation if you can
• Slovak: kompostovať
• Slovene: kompostirati

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout#Translations.

Translations to be checked

• French: ^{(please verify)} composter
• Hebrew: רקבובית (raqbuvyt) f (noun)
• Japanese: kaamposatu, kaanposatu
• Korean: kamposatu, kanposatu

• Latin: compostus? m
• Serbo-Croatian: ^{(please verify)} kompost
• Spanish: compost

See also

• mulch (sometimes used interchangeably with compost)
• humus

Anagrams

• compots

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Catalan

Etymology 1

From Old Occitan, from Latin compostus, syncopated variant of compositus.

Adjective

compost (feminine composta, masculine plural composts or compostos, feminine plural compostes)

1. compound

   ull compost

   compound eye

Etymology 2

From the above, possibly influenced by English compost.

Noun

compost m (plural composts or compostos)

1. compost

Verb

compost

1. past participle of compondre

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Dutch

Etymology

Borrowed from English compost.

Pronunciation

• Audio

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɔst

Noun

compost m, n (uncountable)

1. compost, natural fertilizer produced by decaying organic matter

Derived terms

• composteren
• compostering

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French

Etymology

From a substantivation and specialization of old Norman compost, from (Old Northern French), Old French composte (“mixture of leaves, manure, etc., for fertilizing land; condiment”), from Latin compostus, syncopated variant of compositus (“composed, compound”), from componere. Modern French spelling influenced by English (compare the modern Norman spelling compôt, which is the expected form). Doublet of compote and composite.

Noun

compost m (plural composts)

1. compost, natural fertilizer produced by decaying organic matter

Derived terms

• compostage m
• composter

Related terms

• composer

Further reading

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

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Italian

Etymology

Borrowed from English compost. Doublet of composto.

Noun

compost m (invariable)

1. compost

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Old French

Etymology

From Latin compostus, syncopated variant of compositus, from compōnō (“I arrange, compile, compose, make up”).

Adjective

compost m (oblique and nominative feminine singular composte)

1. composed (of)

Descendants

• English: compost
• Norman: compôt
• French: compost, compote