esculent, a. and n.
(ˈɛskjʊlənt)
[ad. L. esculent-us, f. esca food.]
A. adj.
1. Suitable for food, eatable.
| 1626 Bacon Sylva §630 A Number of Herbs are not Esculent at all. 1756 C. Lucas Ess. Waters III. 238 The gardens afford good supplies of the best esculent vegetables. 1813 Bingley Anim. Biog. (ed. 4) III. 471 Esculent Snail. 1816 Kirby & Sp. Entomol x. (1828) I. 310 The order Aptera does not much more abound in esculent insects than the Diptera. 1866 Rogers Agric. & Prices I. iv. 66 Onions and cabbage appear to have been the only esculent vegetables. |
¶ confused use.
| 1813 Bingley Anim. Biog. (ed. 4) II. 212 The Esculent Swallow. The nest of this bird is edible. |
2. absol. quasi-n.
| 1626 Bacon Sylva (1631) § 474 In Plants, where the Root is the Esculent, as Radish, and Parsnips. |
B. n. Anything that is eatable, or fit for food; esp. vegetables.
| 1625 Massinger New Way iv. ii, A piece of Suffolk cheese, or gammon of bacon, Or any esculent, as the learned call it. 1725 Bradley Fam. Dict. Esculents, by which is to be understood Plants for Food. 1754 Dodsley Agric. ii, His various esculents, from glowing beds Give the fair promise of delicious feasts. 1863 Ball in N. & Q. Ser. iii. IV. 193 The 4th of August was the period when the juicy esculent could be first enjoyed. 1872 Yeats Growth Comm. 25 The varieties of palm furnished..an esculent something like the cabbage. |