esculent
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈɛskjʊlənt/
ipa: /ˈɛskjələnt/
Forms: form: esculents
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: Thou neuer hadſt in thy houſe to ſtay mens ſtomackes / A peece of Suffolke cheeſe, or Gammon of Bacon, / Or any eſculent, as the learned call it, / For their emolument, but ſheere drinke only.
ref: 1625 (date written), Philip Massinger, A New Way to Pay Old Debts: A Comœdie […], London: […] E[lizabeth] P[urslowe] for Henry Seyle, […], published 1633, →OCLC, Act IV, scene ii:
text: [T]here is a double Vſe of this Cutting off the Leaues: For in Plants, where the Root is the Eſculent, as Radiſh, and Parſnips, it will make the Root the greater: And ſo it will doe to the Heads of Onions. And where the Fruit is the Eſculent, by Strengthening the Root, it will make the Fruit alſo the greater.
ref: 1631, Francis [Bacon], “V. Century. [Experiments in Consort, Touching the Melioration of Fruits, Trees, and Plants.]”, in Sylua Syluarum: Or A Naturall Historie. In Ten Centuries. […], 3rd edition, London: […] William Rawley […]; [p]rinted by J[ohn] H[aviland] for William Lee […], →OCLC, paragraph 474, page 118:
text: They [the Essenes] faſted from meats, not only fleſh, but fiſh, and all other eſculents, but onely ſalt, bread, and herbs; but held not thoſe other meats unlawfull to bee eaten, from which they faſted.
ref: 1642, Richard Montagu, “The Jewish State in Spirituals. Their Sundry Heresies.”, in The Acts and Monuments of the Church before Christ Incarnate, London: […] Miles Flesher and Robert Young, →OCLC, paragraph 110, page 449:
text: I am of the Opinion that Man is not a drinking (becauſe not a carnivorous) Animal, at leaſt no more than a Rabbet, or Sheep, forc'd to it when the Graſs is Sunburnt, parch'd and dry; for if we liv'd as did the Antediluvians, on Fruits, Roots and Herbs, &c. thoſe Eſculents had Moiſture and Succulency enough to abate, (or rather to prevent) Thirſt.
ref: 1705 February 14, Edward Baynard, “To Dr. Edward Baynard”, in John Floyer, Edward Baynard, ΨΥΧΡΟΛΟΥΣΊΑ [Psychrolousía]: Or, The History of Cold-bathing, Both Ancient and Modern. […], 6th edition, London: […] W. Innys and R. Manby, […], published 1732, →OCLC, part II, page 329:
text: The Brinjal (Solanum Melongena, L.) includes the Egg-shaped, Green, and Purple varieties, and is so generally esteemed, throughout India, among the very best of table esculents, that no description of mine can add to its praise. […] Nevertheless, this nutritious esculent, although everywhere plentiful in Spain and Portugal, is never to be procured, except of the egg variety, in Covent Garden or other English markets, and then only in flower-pots;—this is the more strange, because the numerous families from the East and West Indies, would ensure a profitable sale of it, by the speculative gardener.
ref: 1843, J[ohn] W[hitchurch] Bennett, chapter XVIII, in Ceylon and Its Capabilities; an Account of Its Natural Resources, Indigenous Productions, and Commercial Facilities; […], London: W[illia]m H. Allen and Co., […], published 1998, →OCLC, pages 148–149:
text: Meanwhile, maize and morning glories, tomatoes and cherry trees, every flower and Esculent known to [Carl] Linnæus, thriv'd.
ref: 1997, Thomas Pynchon, chapter 35, in Mason & Dixon, New York, N.Y.: Henry Holt and Company, →ISBN, part 2 (America), page 360:
text: Earth that opens in chasms is altogether useless; and that which is rough can neither support the plants, nor does it afford the circulation of water. Some rough and sandy situations are well adapted to esculents, nonetheless. These soils have plenty of nutritive mould, by which the roots are nourished.
ref: 2010, Verena Winiwarter, “The Art of Making the Earth Fruitful: Medieval and Early Modern Improvements of Soil Fertility”, in Scott G[ordon] Bruce, editor, Ecologies and Economies in Medieval and Early Modern Europe: Studies in Environmental History for Richard C. Hoffmann (Brill’s Series in the History of the Environment; 1), Leiden; Boston, Mass.: Brill, →ISBN, →ISSN, part 1 (Premodern People and the Natural World), page 104:
synonyms: word: eatable
word: edible
word: victual
word: aliment
word: bait
word: belly-timber
word: chow
word: comestibles
word: cuisine
word: eatables
word: eats
word: edibles
word: feed
raw_tags: for domesticated animals
word: fodder
raw_tags: for domesticated animals
word: foodstuffs
word: food
word: grub
word: kai
word: meals
word: meat
word: munchable
word: nibbles
word: nosebag
word: nosh
word: nourishment
word: om nom nom
word: provender
word: provisions
word: rations
word: scran
word: stodge
word: sustenance
word: tiffin
word: tucker
word: tuck
word: viands
word: victuals
word: vittles
coordinate_terms: word: drinkable
word: poculent
word: potable
glosses: Something edible, especially a vegetable; a comestible.
examples: text: In a raw state, a piece the size of a pea of either of the three fungi above-mentioned, if placed on the tongue, would cause intolerable agony. Possibly if well cooked some of the poisonous principles might vanish, but we question whether such species should be mentioned amongst esculents in a popular book, simply because a wild "Russian" could eat some of the plants mentioned, possibly to the accompaniment of a draught of rancid train-oil. Some of the so-called esculents are tough subjects, as Polysporus squamosus and P. fomentarius; we venture to say that if anyone should succeed in getting a slice of the first into his inside it would be a matter of surprise to his friends if he ever got a slice of anything else in.
ref: 1887 January, W. G. S., “Text-book of British Fungi. By W. De Lisle Hay [i.e., William Delisle Hay], F.R.G.S. Swan Sonnenschein, Lowrey & Co. [book review]”, in James Britten, editor, The Journal of Botany, British and Foreign, volume XXV, London: West, Newman & Co., […], →OCLC, page 121:
text: [Morchella] esculentoides [is] similar to Morchella esculenta, a European esculent, whose name, appropriately, means "edible".
ref: 2015, Vera Stucky Evenson, Denver Botanic Gardens, Mushrooms of the Rocky Mountain Region: Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, Wyoming, Portland, Or.: Timber Press, →ISBN:
topics: biology
mycology
natural-sciences
glosses: An edible mushroom.
Related terms: esurient