vetch

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English fecche, also vecche and ficche,^[2][3][4] borrowed from Anglo-Norman veche, the northern form of Old French vece,^[5][3][6] now French vesce,^[5][3] from Latin vicia (“vetch”).^[5][7][8] Anglo-Norman also has fecche and ficche, and the origin of the forms with f- is unclear: it is not known whether the sound changed first in Anglo-Norman or in English.^[5] The OED records E. J. Dobson's suggestion of an earlier borrowing into Old English, but finds no evidence for it.^[5] Barnhart explains the t of the spelling as a convention, on the pattern of fetch, and finds vetch generally from the 1500s.^[9] The same Latin word gave Italian veccia, Dutch wikke and German Wicke.^[5][8][10] The OED calls it of unknown origin and Barnhart of uncertain origin,^[5][9] while Etymonline thinks it perhaps related to vinciō (“to bind”),^[8] and Klein probably so, comparing Latvian vikne (“tendril”) and deriving them from Proto-Indo-European *weig- (“to bend, twist”).^[10] The American Heritage Dictionary refers it to the root Proto-Indo-European *weik-.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

A leguminous plant of the genus Vicia: about 1300, cited from T. Hunt's Plant Names of Medieval England.^[5] Barnhart's first record is the Wycliffe Bible of about 1384,^[9] and the Middle English Dictionary quotes that Bible's Middle English ficche for the Latin viciam in Isaiah.^[2] Etymonline dates the word to the mid-14th century.^[8]

Semantic evolution

In Old French the word was used from the first as the type of something of little value,^[5] and English has this use from before 1400 to 1626, much as with bean.^[5][11] The seed could also serve as a measure of quantity, from about 1440 to 1634, because of its small size.^[5][6] Chaucer uses the word once, in the plural.^[12] From about 1400 the word was applied, with a distinguishing word, to related or similar plants of other genera,^[5][11] and such names as milk vetch and kidney vetch are still in the dictionaries.^[4][13] The modern form replaced fetch,^[6] but fitch, the form of the Wycliffe text of Isaiah, is still found in dialect, according to Weekley.^[14]

Timeline

• c. 1300 – a plant of the genus Vicia.^[5][11]
• before 1398 – the edible seed of the plant, a pulse.^[5][11]
• before 1400 – as the type of something of little value (obsolete by 1626).^[5][11]
• c. 1400 – with a distinguishing word, a plant of another genus resembling vetch.^[5][11]
• c. 1440 – the seed as a measure of a small quantity (obsolete by 1634).^[5]
• 1578 – with a distinguishing word, a particular species of Vicia.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. Any of various climbing leguminous plants of the genus Vicia, with tendrils and paired leaflets, some grown for fodder.^[13][4][5]
2. Any of several similar plants of other genera, such as kidney vetch.^[13][4][5]
3. The seed of such a plant, used as a pulse or as animal feed.^[13][4][5]
4. (obsolete, before 1400–1626) The type of something of little or no value.^[5][6]

Word family

• vetchlike
• vetchling
• vetchy

Related words

• fitch

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b 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 Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b c d e 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 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
8. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
9. ^ a b c Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
10. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
11. ^ a b c d e f Kay, Christian; Roberts, Jane; Samuels, Michael; Wotherspoon, Irené, eds. (2009), Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press; online edition (2024)
12. ^ Benson, Larry D., Glossarial Concordance to Middle English (Chaucer, Gower), Johns Hopkins University, github.com/jhu-digital-manuscripts/gcme
13. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
14. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray