vegetal

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Late Latin vegetālis, from vegetō.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈvɛd͡ʒɨtl̩/
• (General American) enPR: vĕjʹĭ-tl, IPA^(key): /ˈvɛd͡ʒɪ̈tl̩/
• Rhymes: -ɛd͡ʒɪtəl
• Hyphenation UK: ve‧ge‧tal, US: veg‧e‧tal

Adjective

vegetal (comparative more vegetal, superlative most vegetal)

1. (now rare, historical) Capable of growth and reproduction, but not feeling or reason (often opposed to sensible and rational).
   • 1624, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy: , 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Printed by John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, →OCLC, partition III, section 2, member 1, subsection i:

     Which although it be denominated from men, and most evident in them, yet it extends and shows itself in vegetal and sensible creatures […].

2. Pertaining to vegetables or plants.
   • 1895, J[ohn] W[esley] Powell, chapter I, in Canyons of the Colorado, Meadville, PA: Flood & Vincent; republished as The Exploration of the Colorado River and Its Canyons, New York: Dover, 1961, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 22:

     The landscape of vegetal life is weird—no forests, no meadows, no green hills, no foliage, but clublike stems of plants armed with stilettos.

   • 2018, Susan Orlean, The Library Book, Simon and Schusterl, page 241:

     The Computer Center is muffled and dim, warm with whiffs of sourness, of body odor, and of the vegetal smells of dirt embedded in clothes that were advancing in the direction of compost.

3. (wine) Having a grassy, herbaceous taste.

Derived terms

• vegetality
• vegetally
• vegetal pole
• vegetaline

Translations

Noun

vegetal (plural vegetals)

1. (obsolete, chiefly botany) Any vegetable organism.
   • 1624, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy: , 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Printed by John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, →OCLC:

     This melancholy extends itself not to men only, but even to vegetals and sensibles.

Anagrams

• gavelet

Catalan

Etymology

Learned borrowing from Latin vegetālis.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): (Central)
• IPA^(key): (Balearic)
• IPA^(key): (Valencian)

Adjective

vegetal m or f (masculine and feminine plural vegetals)

1. (relational) plant, vegetable; vegetal

Noun

vegetal m (plural vegetals)

1. plant, vegetable

   Synonym: planta

Derived terms

• vegetalisme
• vegetalista

Further reading

• “vegetal” in Diccionari de la llengua catalana, segona edició, Institut d’Estudis Catalans.

Interlingua

Adjective

vegetal (not comparable)

1. vegetal, vegetable

Piedmontese

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ved͡ʒeˈtal/

Noun

vegetal m (plural vegetaj)

1. vegetable

Portuguese

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: (Portugal) -al, (Brazil) -aw
• Hyphenation: ve‧ge‧tal

Noun

vegetal m (plural vegetais)

1. vegetable (edible material derived from a plant)

   Synonyms: verdura f, planta f, erva f, hortaliça f

2. (figuratively) vegetable (person whose body or brain has been damaged so that they cannot interact with the surrounding environment)

Adjective

vegetal m or f (plural vegetais)

1. (relational) plant

   célula vegetal ― plant cell

Romanian

Etymology

Borrowed from French végétal.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ve.d͡ʒeˈtal/

Adjective

vegetal m or n (feminine singular vegetală, masculine plural vegetali, feminine and neuter plural vegetale)

1. vegetal, vegetable

Declension

Further reading

• vegetal in DEX online—Dicționare ale limbii române (Dictionaries of the Romanian language)

Spanish

Spanish Wikipedia has an article on:

vegetal

Wikipedia ^es

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /bexeˈtal/
• Rhymes: -al
• Syllabification: ve‧ge‧tal

Adjective

vegetal m or f (masculine and feminine plural vegetales)

1. vegetal

Derived terms

Noun

vegetal m (plural vegetales)

1. vegetable

   Synonym: verdura

Further reading

• “vegetal”, in Diccionario de la lengua española, Vigésima tercera edición, Real Academia Española, 2014