nourishment

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English norishement,^[2][3] probably partly borrowed from Anglo-Norman nurissement, also norisement, and Middle French norrissement,^[4][5][6] and partly formed in English from nourish and -ment.^[4][7] The French noun, recorded from the late 12th century,^[4] is from Old French norrir (“to raise, nurture, foster”),^[3][4][8] from Latin nūtriō (“to feed, nurse, foster”),^[3] from an older form of nūtrix (“nurse”),^[3] from Proto-Indo-European *nu-tri-, a suffixed form of *(s)nau- (“to swim, flow, let flow”).^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The action of nourishing, nurture: about 1330, in Arthour and Merlin.^[4] Etymonline dates "fostering, upbringing" to about 1300.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The word first named the act, as the Anglo-Norman noun did, whose senses from about 1170 ran from feeding to food, support and upbringing.^[5][4] The Wycliffite Bible used it in the plural for what feeds a fire (before 1382),^[2] and Etymonline dates the sense "food, sustenance" to the early 15th century,^[3] while the OED's first record is from about 1450, in Saint Erkenwald.^[4] The figurative sense, whatever promotes growth or development, is dated by the 1570s by Etymonline.^[3] Johnson (1755) put the concrete sense "food" first, then "nutrition", then a more general "supply of things needful", with Hooker's the nourishment of their souls.^[9] From 1555 to 1620 it could also mean the nutritive quality of a food,^[4] and since 1897 it has been a rare term of the leather trade, for treating hides with a softening substance.^[4] In Cheshire nourishments were wine or spirits given as medicine.^[10]

Timeline

• c. 1330 – the action of nourishing, nurture.^[4]
• before 1382 – plural, that which sustains, fuel.^[2]
• c. 1450 – that which nourishes; food, sustenance.^[4] Etymonline dates this sense to the early 15th century.^[3]
• 1555 – nutritiveness (obsolete by 1620).^[4]
• 1570s – figurative, that which promotes growth or development.^[3]
• 1897 – the treatment of leather with a softening substance.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. Food or another substance that sustains life and growth; sustenance: The seedlings draw their nourishment from the compost.^[11][8][4]
2. Something that supports mental or spiritual growth: Those letters were her only intellectual nourishment in exile.^[8][4]
3. The act of nourishing or the state of being nourished.^[11][8][4]

Word family

• overnourishment
• renourishment

Related words

• nourish
• nutriment
• nurse
• nurture
• nutrition

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c 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 h i j Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
6. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
7. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
9. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
10. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
11. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins