vegetable

English

Alternative forms

• vegitable (obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle English vegetable, from Old French vegetable, from Latin vegetābilis (“able to live and grow”), derived from vegetāre (“to enliven”). Displaced native Old English wyrt.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈvɛd͡ʒtəbəl/, /ˈvɛd͡ʒətəbəl/

• Audio (UK)

  (file)

• (US, Canada) IPA^(key): /ˈvɛd͡ʒətəbəl/, /ˈvɛd͡ʒtəbəl/, /ˈvɛt͡ʃtəbəl/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

Noun

vegetable (plural vegetables)

1. Any plant.
   • 1837, The Edinburgh New Philosophical Journal (volume 23, page 222)

     That he might ascertain whether any of the cloths of ancient Egypt were made of hemp, M. Dutrochet has examined with the microscope the weavable filaments of this last vegetable.

2. A plant raised for some edible part of it, such as the leaves, roots, fruit or flowers, but excluding any plant considered to be a fruit, grain, herb, or spice in the culinary sense.

   Synonyms: veg, veggie

3. The edible part of such a plant.

   Synonyms: veg, veggie

4. (figuratively, derogatory) A person whose brain (or, infrequently, body) has been damaged so that they cannot interact with the surrounding environment; a person in a persistent vegetative state.

   Synonym: cabbage

Derived terms

• aromatic vegetable
• green vegetable bug
• hydrolyzed vegetable protein
• leaf vegetable
• multivegetable
• nonvegetable
• regrowing vegetable
• root vegetable
• sea vegetable
• vegeburger
• vegetable box
• vegetable carbon
• vegetable fat
• vegetable fern
• vegetable garden
• vegetable ivory
• vegetable juice
• vegetable kingdom
• vegetable lamb
• vegetable leather
• vegetable marrow
• vegetable mercury
• vegetable oil
• vegetable rennet
• vegetable sheep
• vegetable soup
• vegetable sulfur
• vegetably
• veggie

 

Related terms

• vegan
• vegetarian
• vegetate
• vegetation

 

Translations

See vegetable/translations § Noun.

Adjective

vegetable (not comparable)

1. Of or relating to plants.
   • 1882, Thomas Hardy, chapter I, in Two on a Tower. A Romance. [...] In Three Volumes, volume I, London: Sampson Low, Marston, Searle, & Rivington, […], OCLC 654408264, page 1:

     On an early winter afternoon, clear but not cold, when the vegetable world was a weird multitude of skeletons through whose ribs the sun shone freely, a gleaming landau came to a pause on the crest of a hill in Wessex.

2. Of or relating to vegetables.

Translations

of or relating to plants

• Basque: landare-
• Bulgarian: растителен (rastitelen)
• Catalan: vegetal (ca)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 蔬菜 (zh) (shūcài)

• Dutch: planten-, plantaardig (nl)
• Esperanto: legoma
• Finnish: kasvi-
• French: végétal (fr)
• German: pflanzlich (de)
• Greek: φυτο- (fyto-)
• Interlingua: vegetal
• Italian: vegetale (it)

• Macedonian: расти́телен m (rastítelen)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: vegetabilsk

  Nynorsk: vegetabilsk

• Polish: roślinny (pl)
• Portuguese: vegetal (pt)
• Romanian: vegetal (ro) m or n
• Spanish: vegetal (es)
• Ukrainian: росли́нний (uk) (roslýnnyj)
• Vietnamese: rau (vi)
• Welsh: planhigol

of or relating to vegetables

• Bulgarian: зеленчуков (zelenčukov)
• Dutch: groente-
• Finnish: kasvis-
• French: légumier (fr)
• German: Pflanzen- (de), Gemüse- (de)
• Greek: φυτο- (fyto-)

  Ancient: λαχανηρός (lakhanērós)

• Interlingua: leguminose

• Japanese: 野菜の (yasai no), 植物の (shokubutsu no), ベジタブルな (bejitaburu-na) (colloquial), 菜〜 (sai-), 野菜〜 (yasai-), 植物〜 (shokubutsu-)
• Macedonian: зеле́нчуков (zelénčukov)
• Polish: jarzynowy (pl), warzywny (pl)
• Portuguese: leguminoso
• Russian: овощно́й (ru) (ovoščnój)
• Welsh: llysieuol

Further reading

• vegetable on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• vegetable (disambiguation) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia