succulent

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin succulentus (“juicy”), also spelled sūculentus,^[2][3][4][5] and Barnhart and Etymonline take it also from French succulent, recorded in the 16th century.^[6][7] The Latin adjective is formed from succus (“juice, sap”), also sūcus,^[2][3][8] and the suffix -ulentus.^[9][2] The noun is related to sūgō (“to suck”),^[6][7][3][8] and so to suck.^[3][8] Klein calls it cognate with Old English sūcan (“to suck”),^[8] and Etymonline considers this and socian (“to soak”) possible cognates.^[7] The American Heritage Dictionary refers it to Proto-Indo-European *seuə-.^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

Of plants and their parts, having a fleshy and juicy substance: 1601, in Philemon Holland's translation of Pliny's Natural History.^[2][6][3]

Semantic evolution

From plants the adjective spread to other juicy things in 1615, and to food in 1669.^[2] A figurative sense, "rich, sappy", follows from 1626, in Bacon;^[2] the Shorter Oxford quotes George Eliot's "succulent themes of converse or meditation",^[4] and Collins now labels the sense of stimulating interest or desire as informal.^[11] Johnson (1755) gave only "juicy; moist", with quotations about plants and herbage.^[12] In one record of 1673 it was said of a well-nourished person.^[2] The botanical noun, from the adjective, is recorded from 1824 in the OED;^[2] Merriam-Webster, Barnhart and Etymonline date it to 1825.^[3][6][7] The Shorter Oxford and Collins tie it to fleshy leaves or stems that store water, as in a plant of dry places.^[4][11]

Timeline

• 1601 – of plants, fleshy and juicy.^[2][6][3]
• 1615 – of other juicy things.^[2]
• 1626 – figuratively, rich, in Bacon.^[2]
• 1669 – of food.^[2]
• 1673 – of a person, well-nourished (now obsolete).^[2]
• 1824 – noun, a succulent plant, in Loudon.^[2] Merriam-Webster, Barnhart and Etymonline date it to 1825.^[3][6][7]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Full of juice, especially of food: a succulent peach.^[11][3][2]
2. Of a plant, having thick fleshy leaves or stems that store water.^[11][3][4]
3. (informal) Rich, interesting or stimulating: The memoir is full of succulent gossip.^[11][4][3]

Noun

1. (botany) A plant with fleshy tissues that store water, such as a cactus.^[11][3][2]

Word family

• succulence
• succulently
• unsucculent

Related words

• suck
• soak
• exsuccous

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c d e Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
7. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
8. ^ a b c d Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
9. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
10. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
11. ^ a b c d e f Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
12. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.