Vegetable

Vegetable

Noun & Adjective · /ˈvedʒtəb(ə)l/ · a plant or part of a plant used as food; relating to plants

Definition

A vegetable is a plant, or an edible part of a plant, cultivated and eaten as food — typically as part of a savoury meal. Roots, leaves, stems, bulbs, flowers, and seeds can all qualify as vegetables. Carrot, spinach, broccoli, onion, potato — each is a vegetable. As an adjective, vegetable describes anything derived from or relating to plants: vegetable oil, vegetable matter, the vegetable kingdom.

Origin

Vegetable entered English in the fifteenth century from Medieval Latin vegetabilis, meaning growing or animating, derived from vegetare — to enliven or animate. Originally, the word was an adjective describing anything with the capacity to grow and live, including trees and grasses. The narrowing of vegetable to mean specifically edible plants happened gradually over the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries as the word settled into kitchen and garden use.