Etymology Explorer › English

Where does “vegetarian” come from?

Vegetarian is an English coinage from vegetable, ultimately from Latin vegetus meaning lively or vigorous, with the agent noun suffix -arian added to denote one who eats vegetables.

vegetarian (English): A person who does not eat animal flesh, or, in...

Definitions

  1. A person who does not eat animal flesh, or, in...

Ancestry of “vegetarian”, step by step

StepLanguageWordMeaning
1EnglishvegetableAny plant; A plant raised for some edible part of...
2Middle Englishvegetable—
3Old Frenchvegetable—
4Latinvegetabilisanimating, enlivening, vivifying; able to produce...
5LatinvegetoI arouse, enliven, quicken, animate, invigorate;...
6Latinvegetusenlivened, lively, animated, vigorous, active,...
7LatinvegeoI move, excite, quicken, arouse; I am lively or...
8Proto-Italicwegeōto be active, lively
9Proto-Italicwegejō—
10Proto-Indo-Europeanwoǵ-éye-—
11Proto-Indo-Europeanweǵ-lively, awake; strong

Words derived from “vegetarian”

  • vegetarianism
  • nonvegetarian
  • veggo
  • lactovegetarian
  • semivegetarian
  • antivegetarian
  • vegetarianize
  • semivegetarianism
  • demi-vegetarian
  • vegetarianism
  • vegetarian
Every word from Proto-Indo-European weǵ- →