nourish

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English norishen,^[2][3][4] borrowed from Old French noriss-,^[5][6][7][8] the extended stem (compare -ish) of norrir,^[5][8][9] now French nourrir,^[5][6] from Latin nūtriō (“to rear, breastfeed, feed, foster”).^[5][6] Barnhart and the American Heritage Dictionary put a stage Vulgar Latin *nūtriō between the two.^[7][3] The Old French verb is recorded with the sense "to rear" from the late 10th century and "to feed a newborn child" from the mid 11th,^[5] and the Anglo-Norman one from the early 12th.^[10] The OED compares Italian nutrire, Spanish nutrir and Portuguese nutrir.^[5] Etymonline and Klein derive it from *nūtrī, an older form of nūtrīx (“nurse”), literally "she who gives suck",^[6][11] going back to Proto-Indo-European *(s)nāu- (“to swim, flow, let flow”),^[6][3] a root also seen in Ancient Greek νάω (náō, “I flow”) and in a Sanskrit word for dripping and giving milk.^[11][5] The OED calls the Indo-European link probable.^[5] It is related to nurse, nurture, nutrient, nutriment and nutrition.^[11][12]

Earliest recorded meaning

To bring up a child, and to feed: about 1300, in the lives of Saint Martin and Saint Dunstan in the Laud manuscript,^[5] and also about 1300 in Etymonline.^[6] Barnhart finds norisshen, to raise a young person, probably before 1300 in Kyng Alisaunder, and norischen, to feed, about 1300.^[7]

Semantic evolution

Rearing and feeding were the first senses, inherited from French: the verb was used of bringing up a child or young person, an animal, and of cherishing a person, all from about 1300.^[5] The rearing sense is now only archaic or poetic.^[5][4] Hoad already places the figurative "foster" in the 13th century,^[8] and Chaucer and Gower use the verb both for feeding and for encouraging.^[13] Supplying what a thing needs to grow, as with a plant, appears before 1398 in Trevisa.^[5] Johnson (1755) gives "to encrease or support by food", "to support; to maintain" and "to encourage; to foment", the last with Shakespeare's "cockle of rebellion".^[14] Other uses died out: suckling a child (before 1382 to 1674), growing one's hair (about 1384 to 1854) and tending crops (before 1500 to 1792).^[5] A noun nourish, a nurse or foster-mother, a variant of nourice, lasted from 1340 to 1768.^[5] Modern dictionaries keep "foster" and add keeping a feeling or belief alive.^[15][3]

Timeline

• c. 1300 – to bring up a child or young person.^[5][6] Barnhart dates norisshen in this sense probably before 1300.^[7]
• c. 1300 – to sustain with food.^[5][7]
• 1340 – to bring up in a condition or pursuit.^[5]
• 1340 – noun, a nurse or foster-mother (obsolete by 1768).^[5]
• before 1382 – to suckle (obsolete by 1674).^[5]
• c. 1384 – to grow one's hair (obsolete by 1854).^[5]
• before 1398 – to supply a plant or thing with what it needs to grow.^[5]
• before 1500 – to tend a plant or crop (obsolete by 1792).^[5]

Meanings

Verb

1. To give a person, animal or plant the food or other substances needed for life and growth: Compost nourishes the vegetable patch.^[16][3][5]
2. To foster or promote the development of something: Good teachers nourish curiosity.^[16][3]
3. To keep a feeling or belief alive in one's mind: She nourished a hope of returning home.^[15][3]
4. To make soil more fertile.^[15]
5. (archaic) To bring up or rear a child.^[4][5]
6. (obsolete, 1382–1674) To suckle a child or young animal.^[5][9]

Word family

• nourisher
• nourishable
• malnourishment
• renourish
• nourishing
• nourishment
• overnourish
• undernourish

Related words

• nurse
• nurture
• nutriment
• nutrition
• nutrient
• nutritious

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b c d e f g The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
4. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
8. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
11. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
12. ^ Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
13. ^ Benson, Larry D., Glossarial Concordance to Middle English (Chaucer, Gower), Johns Hopkins University, github.com/jhu-digital-manuscripts/gcme
14. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
15. ^ a b c Soanes, Catherine; Stevenson, Angus, eds. (2004), Concise Oxford English Dictionary, 11th ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
16. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins