A vegetable is a plant or part of a plant that people eat as food, such as carrots, beans, or lettuce. Vegetables are often eaten with main dishes and are known for being healthy.
From Medieval Latin 'vegetabilis', meaning 'growing, animating', from 'vegetare' meaning 'to enliven or quicken'. Over time, English narrowed the meaning from anything that grows to plants used as food.
Strangely, ‘vegetable’ started out meaning something lively and growing, almost the opposite of how people use it as an insult today. Also, many of our ‘vegetables’—like tomatoes and cucumbers—are fruits in botanical terms. The word reveals how cooking and science sort plants in very different ways.
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