Veggie

How to spell veggie

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce veggie

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does veggie mean?

1. nounAn informal word for a vegetable.
2. adjectiveInformal term meaning vegetarian, or made without meat.

Veggie in a sentence

• noun

  She added one more chopped veggie to the simmering stew.

• adjective

  The cafe offers a tasty veggie burger made from beans.

• noun

  The market stall sold every kind of veggie you could imagine.

• adjective

  She has followed a strict veggie diet for ten years.

Where does veggie come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This is an informal English clipping of 'vegetable', which itself came through Old French from the Late Latin vegetabilis, meaning 'able to live and grow', built on the verb vegetare 'to enliven or animate'. The deeper root vegere meant 'to be active or lively', the same source that gives us 'vigour' and 'vegetate'. Vegetables earned the name because they were the part of the diet that visibly grew and flourished. The breezy short form 'veggie' arose in twentieth century informal speech, adding the friendly '-ie' ending that English loves for nicknames and casual reductions, the same suffix seen in 'movie' and 'telly'. The double 'g' is the spelling trap here: the soft 'j' sound is written 'gg' to keep the word looking like its parent 'vegetable'.

How the word is built

• vegg- (clipping of vegetable, from Latin vegetabilis: able to grow)
• -ie (familiar/diminutive suffix)