esculent
Language: English
Part of speech: adj
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈɛskjʊlənt/
ipa: /ˈɛskjələnt/
Forms: form: more esculent
form: most esculent
Etymology: Learned borrowing from Latin ēsculentus (“fit for eating, eatable, edible; good to eat, delicious; nourishing; full of food”) + English -ent (suffix forming adjectives with the sense of causing, doing, or promoting a certain action). Ēsculentus is derived from ēsca (“food; dish prepared for the table; bait”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₁ed- (“to eat”)) + -ulentus (suffix meaning ‘abounding in, full of’ forming adjectives).
Senses: examples: text: [T]he Lacedæmonians, […] had proclaimed that any man that would, ſhould carry in Meale, Wine, Cheeſe, and all other eſculents neceſſary for a Siege, into the Iland, appointing for the ſame a great reward of ſiluer: […]
ref: 1629, Thucydides, “The Fourth Booke”, in Thomas Hobbes, transl., Eight Bookes of the Peloponnesian Warre […], London: […] Hen[ry] Seile, […], →OCLC, page 226:
text: Now may you Tranſplant moſt ſorts of Eſculent, or Phyſical plants, &c.
ref: 1664, J[ohn] E[velyn], “Kalendarium Hortense: Or, The Gard’ners Almanac; […] [September.]”, in Sylva, or A Discourse of Forest-trees and the Propagation of Timber in His Majesties Dominions. […], London: […] Jo[hn] Martyn, and Ja[mes] Allestry, printers to the Royal Society, […], →OCLC, page 74:
text: BLUBBER. […] either that which is of various figures, being covered with a hard callous skin, conteining an eſculent pulpy ſubstance: or that which is of a fleſhly conſiſtence, having no hard skin, being of various ſhapes and bigneſſes, ſome of them ſtinging the hand upon the touch.
ref: 1668, John Wilkins, “Of Exanguious Animals”, in An Essay towards a Real Character, and a Philosophical Language, London: […] Sa[muel] Gellibrand, and for John Martyn printer to the Royal Society, →OCLC, part II, page 131:
text: [M]oſt of the fungi are indeed of a hurtful quality, and with reſpect to the whole tribe the eſculent are very few. Eſculent muſhrooms are very nutritive, very readily alcaleſcent, and more ſo without intermediate aceſcency than any other vegetable; […]
ref: 1775, William Cullen, “Mushrooms”, in Lectures on the Materia Medica, as Delivered by William Cullen, M.D. […], Philadelphia, Pa.: […] Robert Bell, […], →OCLC, page 68:
text: I find I incorporate gneiss and coal and long-threaded moss and fruits and grains and esculent roots, / And am stucco'd with quadrupeds and birds all over, / And have distanced what is behind me for good reasons, / And call any thing close again when I desire it.
ref: 1855 July 4, Walt Whitman, “[Song of Myself]”, in Leaves of Grass, Brooklyn, New York, N.Y.: [James and Andrew Rome], →OCLC, page 34:
text: [T]o assert that we could not breed our cart and race-horses, long and short-horned cattle, and poultry of various breeds, and esculent vegetables, for almost an infinite number of generations, would be opposed to all experience.
ref: 1859 November 24, Charles Darwin, “Variation under Domestication”, in On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, […], London: John Murray, […], →OCLC, page 15:
text: Nicolas Venette, French physician, refers to skirret, a plant that has esculent tubers, for its high aphrodisiac potential.
ref: 1961, Harry E. Wedeck, Dictionary of Aphrodisiacs, New York: The Citadel Press, page 224:
text: Biogeographical factors, particularly the absence of an indigenous land mammal fauna and a mild oceanic climate, are suggested as the reasons why the New Zealand flora has not provided significant esculent plants.
ref: 1992, W. Harris, P[eter] B[rian] Heenan, “Domestication of the New Zealand Flora—an Alternative View”, in Sandra Stanislawek, editor, New Zealand Journal of Crop and Horticultural Science, volume 20, number 3, Wellington: Scientific and Industrial Research Publishing of New Zealand, Royal Society of New Zealand, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 257, column 1:
text: From the early 1820s, evidence emerges for Chinese activities in coastal Burma's esculent bird's nest trade. Swallows along the Burmese coasts, as elsewhere, made these edible nests in rocky crags, often on hilly islands (especially available in the Mergui Archipelago and the Tavoy Islands). Made of a glutinous secretion from the bird, these translucent nests would then be gathered and sold for shipment to Chinese markets, where they were considered a tasty delicacy.
ref: 2004, Michael Walter Charney, “Esculent Bird’s Nest, Tin, and Fish: The Overseas Chinese and Their Trade in the Eastern Bay of Bengal (Coastal Burma) during the First Half of the Nineteenth Century”, in Wang Gungwu, Ng Chin-keong, editors, Maritime China in Transition 1750–1850 (South China and Maritime Asia; 12), Wiesbaden, Hesse: Harrassowitz Verlag, →ISBN, →ISSN, page 248:
text: But beyond plants esculent and floral, John Quincey Adams favored trees.
ref: 2016, Marta McDowell, “Gentleman’s Occupation: 1810s–1830s”, in All the Presidents’ Gardens: Madison’s Cabbages to Kennedy’s Roses—How the White House Grounds Have Grown with America, Portland, Or.: Timber Press, →ISBN, page 76:
synonyms: word: comestible
word: consumable
word: eatable
word: eatworthy
word: edible
word: esculent
word: nibbleable
word: stomachable
word: palatable
antonyms: word: inesculent
word: edible
coordinate_terms: word: drinkable
word: poculent
word: potable
glosses: Suitable for eating; eatable, edible.
examples: text: [H]ow could she have known that Harry had written in his notebook, shortly before he encountered her comely, esculent self, "Better that her neck should bear the traces of my loving teeth"? Better than what? One is afraid to ask.
ref: 1976, Geoffrey Wolff, chapter 9, in Black Sun: The Brief Transit and Violent Eclipse of Harry Crosby, New York, N.Y.: Random House, →ISBN, page 142:
text: My custodian was now the 'Old Bill', the magistrate was one of those soppy, earnest chaps who long to hear of broken homes and deprived childhoods and Johanna was looking esculent in a cinnamon sheath such as you could not buy with a lifetime's trading-stamps.
ref: 1979, Kyril Bonfiglioli, “After You with the Pistol”, in The Mortdecai Trilogy, London: Penguin Books, published 2001, →ISBN, page 334:
synonyms: word: attractive
word: beauteous
word: beautifool
word: beautiful
word: beautimous
word: bona vardering
word: bonnie
word: breathtaking
word: captivating
word: comely
word: cute
word: esculent
word: exquisite
word: fair
word: fetching
word: fine-looking
word: good-looking
word: good enough to eat
word: handsome
word: knockout
word: lovely
word: lovesome
word: lustrious
word: nice
word: nice-looking
word: personable
word: physically attractive
word: pretty
word: prettiful
word: pulchritudinous
word: shapely
word: sheen
word: sightly
word: stunning
word: swanlike
word: well-favoured
word: winsome
word: bad
word: beat
word: butters
word: butt-ugly
word: clapped
word: coyote ugly
word: deform
word: fuckfaced
word: fugly
word: hideous
word: homely
word: like the back end of a bus
word: plug-ugly
word: repulsive
word: ugly
word: ugly as sin
word: unattractive
word: uncomely
word: unsightly
word: unpretty
glosses: “Good enough to eat”; attractive.
Derived terms: esculentin
esculent swallow
inesculent