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victual

noun
/ˈvɪtəl/UK/ˈvɪtəl/US

Etymology

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 vīctuālia, the neuter plural of vīctuālis (“nutritional”), from Latin vīctus (“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 vīctuālia, though the pronunciation of the Middle English, Anglo-Norman, and Middle French words has been retained.

  1. derived from *gʷeyh₃-✻ — “to live”
  2. derived from vīctus — “that which sustains life, diet, nourishment, provision”
  3. derived from vīctuālia
  4. derived from vitaile
  5. derived from vitaile
  6. inherited from vitaile

Definitions

  1. Food fit for human (or occasionally animal) consumption.

    • Shift bore (for il aire) as best ye do thinke, / and twise a day giue him fresh vittle and drinke: […]
    • [T]hough the Cameleon Loue can feed on the ayre, I am one that am nouriſh'd by my victuals; and would faine have meate: [...]
    • [T]he Making of Things Inalimentall, to become Alimentall, may be an Experiment of great Profit, for Making new Victuall.

  2. Food supplies

    Food supplies; provisions.

    • It is good to make prouiſion, for peraduenture wee ſhall lacke victuals and wee lie in campe on Blacke Heath long.

  3. Edible plants.

  4. ›+ 4 more definitions

    1. Grain of any kind.

      • But if the beast and branks be spar'd / Till kye be gaun without the herd, / An' a' the vittel in the yard, / An' theckit right, / I mean your ingle-side to guard / Ae winter night.

    2. To provide (military troops, a place, a ship, etc., or oneself) with a stock of victuals…

      To provide (military troops, a place, a ship, etc., or oneself) with a stock of victuals or food; to provision.

      • [T]hy louing voyage / Is but for two moneths victuall’d: […]
      • Spinola [Ambrogio Spinola, 1st Marquess of Los Balbases] continueth in his trenches before Breda, and victualeth and strengtheneth Breda, which being done, it is thought he will besiege Bergen op Zoom.
      • He victualleth his soldiers during the time they are upon the guard, either about the palace or abroad in the wars: whereas it is contrary in the King's country; for the Cingalese soldiers bear their own expenses.

    3. To lay in or procure food supplies.

      • A letter from Lt.-Gen. [John] Burgoyne to Maj.-Gen. [William] Heath, Jan. 24. 1778. […] [T]he fleet was fully victualled for four months, for the whole of the land-army and ſeamen.

    4. To eat.

      • I have Drank and Victual’d at Sir Humphrey’s for a Months Famine I am to endure here—I am hung round with Bottles and ſtuft full of Proviſion; will you eat a Pullet?

The neighborhood

Derived

victualer, victualler, victualled, victualling, victualling bill, victualling house, victualling yard

Vish — recursive loop

No curated loop yet for victual. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA