Etymologically
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vegetation

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Pronunciation

  • /ˌvɛd͡ʒəˈteɪʃən/[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin vegetātiō (“act of invigorating”), recorded in Apuleius in the 2nd century, which in medieval Latin also meant the power of growth;[2][3][4] the Latin noun is formed on the past participle stem of vegetō (“to enliven, quicken”), the source of vegetate, with the suffix that became -ation.[2][5][6] Etymonline also allows some influence from végétation,[7] and the verb is related to vegetable.[7][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The power of growth, or the action of a plant or seed in growing: the OED's first quotation is from a manuscript of about 1450.[2][9] Etymonline dates the word to the 1560s, as the act of vegetating,[7] Merriam-Webster gives 1564 for growth in general,[5][2] and Dictionary.com 1555–65.[8]

Semantic evolution

Johnson (1755) still defined the word only as the power of producing the growth of plants.[10] In the 17th century it was also used of the growth or vital power of the soul (1613–1745), of a single stage of plant growth (1672–1779) and, in alchemy and chemistry, of the plant-like growth of crystals and other inorganic substances (from 1671);[2][9] a plant itself was a vegetation from before 1641 until the 19th century.[2] The collective sense, plants or plant life as a whole, especially those of a particular place, is recorded in James Thomson's Summer in 1744,[2][9] and by 1727 in Etymonline.[7] In medicine, from 1762, it names a plant-like growth on a surface of the body, especially on a heart valve.[2][9] The figurative sense, a dull existence without intellectual or social activity, appears in a letter of Lady Mary Wortley Montagu in 1760,[2][9] parallel to the verb vegetate.[5]

Timeline

  • ?c1450 – the power of growth.[2]
  • 1564 – the process of growing and developing.[2][5]
  • 1613 – the growing power of the soul (obsolete by 1745).[2]
  • 1671 – plant-like growth of inorganic substances.[2]
  • 1744 – plants collectively.[2]
  • 1760 – a dull, inactive existence.[2]
  • 1762 – (medicine) a plant-like growth on the body.[2]

Modern meaning

Noun

  1. Plants or plant life as a whole, especially the plants of a particular area: Thick vegetation covered the riverbanks.
  2. The act or process of growing as a plant does.
  3. (medicine) An abnormal growth on a body surface, especially a clot of fibrin and cells on a heart valve.
  4. A dull existence lacking mental or social stimulation.

Word family

  • vegetational
  • vegetationless
  • prevegetation
  • undervegetation

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. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  4. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  5. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  6. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  7. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  8. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
  9. ^ a b c d e Kay, Christian; Roberts, Jane; Samuels, Michael; Wotherspoon, Irené, eds. (2009), Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press; online edition (2024)
  10. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.