victual
Meaning
-
- Food fit for human (or occasionally animal) consumption.
- Food supplies; provisions.
- (obsolete) Edible plants.
- (obsolete) Grain of any kind.
Synonyms
Hyphenated as
vic‧tual
Pronounced as (IPA)
/ˈvɪtəl/
Etymology
In summary
From Middle English vitaile, vitaylle (“food; food and drink, especially as needed for sustenance; (usually in the plural) food and drink stores or supplies; rations; provision of food and drink as a military stipend; crops”) [and other forms], from Anglo-Norman vitaile, vitaille [and other forms] and Old French vitaile, vitaille, victaille (“food, provisions, victuals”) [and other forms] (modern French victuaille), from Late Latin victuālia, the neuter plural of victuālis (“nutritional”), from Latin victus (“that which sustains life, diet, nourishment, provision”) + -ālis (suffix forming adjectives of relationship from nouns). Vīctus is derived from vīvō (“to live; to be alive, survive; to reside in”) (possibly ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *gʷeyh₃- (“to live”)) + -tus (suffix forming action nouns from verbs). The spelling of the modern English and French words has been influenced by Late Latin victuālia, though the pronunciation of the Middle English, Anglo-Norman, and Middle French words has been retained.
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Notes