vegetationn.
/ˌvɛdʒᵻˈteɪʃn/, U.S. /ˌvɛdʒəˈteɪʃən/ I. The power or process of growing (as a plant).† 2. The faculty, process, or phenomena of growth and development possessed by certain inorganic substances; spec. the production of an arborescent formation of crystals by a salt. Cf. sense 6a. Obsolete.† 3. An act, instance, or stage of plant growth or development. Obsolete.
1. † c. spec. The power or faculty of life and growth in the soul. Cf. vegetative adj. 1a. Obsolete.
a. Originally: †the power of growth (obsolete). In later use: the action (by a plant or seed) of growing or starting to grow. Cf. vegetate v. 1.
ΘΚΠ
the world > plants > by growth or development > defined by good growth > [noun] > good growth or power
vegetation?c1450
validity1578
vigour1604
vegetity1628
virour1657
hardiness1834
robustness1870
the world > plants > by growth or development > [noun] > growth or vegetation
thriftc1230
upgrowing1430
thrivage1610
vegetity1628
vigidity1628
vegetating1641
vegetation1665
increase1794
multiplication1849
?c1450 MS Cambr. Hh.3.13 f. 109v, in Medium Ævum (2000) 69 81 An erbe or a tree..be [read the] whiche han vegitacion and quyknesse.
1597 Bp. J. King Lect. Ionas 15 If it [sc. the fig] be once dead in naturall vegetation, it shall bee twise deade in spirituall malediction.
1620 T. Granger Syntagma Logicum 108 Vegetation, and locomotion are powers of growing, augmentation, moouing, remoouing.
1665 T. Herbert Some Years Trav. (new ed.) 333 The root where the sap lies constantly conveying vegetation to the tree in those warm Regions.
1707 tr. P. Le Lorrain de Vallemont Curiosities in Husbandry & Gardening 28 The Operations of each Plant, which are Nutrition, Augmentation and Propagation,..we..express by the single Word Vegetation, which in Effect includes them all.
1760 J. Lee Introd. Bot. i. vii. 14 The Seed..is a deciduous Part of the Vegetable, the Rudiment of a new one, quickened for Vegetation by the Sprinkling of the Pollen.
1789 H. L. Piozzi Observ. Journey France II. 191 In these countries vegetation is so rapid, that every thing makes haste to come and more to go.
1813 R. Bakewell Introd. Geol. viii. 199 The vegetation of perennial grasses in the spring is at least a fortnight sooner on lime-stone and sandy soils..than on clayey.
1884 F. O. Bower & D. H. Scott tr. H. A. de Bary Compar. Anat. Phanerogams & Ferns 561 The intercellular air-spaces of the cortical parenchyma are in open communication with the external air at the time of active vegetation.
1906 Gardening Illustr. 11 July 274/1 The action of cold in suspending the vegetation of plants ready to flower, and retarding the opening of cut flowers.
1941 J. Levitt Frost Killing & Hardiness Plants ii. x.142 Tavc̆̆ar..found a correlation between hardiness of grains and the period of vegetation.
1983 J. G. Burke Uses Sci. 125 The society's attention was instantaneously diverted from cannon to onions and the vegetation of plants.
2009 Express (Nexis) 3 June (News) 22 Because of global warming there is a longer period of vegetation, which allows more tick hosts like deer to increase their numbers.
b. In general use: the action or process of growing and developing. Now rare.figurative in quot. 1755.
ΘΚΠ
the world > life > biology > biological processes > development, growth, or degeneration > [noun] > growth > action or faculty of
vegetation1564
vegetatives1605
vegetity1628
vegetativeness1727
1564 tr. P. M. Vermigli Most Fruitfull & Learned Comm. f. 212 To eate, is not onely to chawe the meate,..but moreouer to conuert it into the substaunce of hys bodye, by concoction thoroughe the power of vegitacion.
1594 H. Plat Diuerse Sorts of Soyle 11 in Jewell House Salt..causeth the vegetation, perfection, maturitie, and the whole good that is contained in euery thing that nourisheth.
1605 T. Tymme tr. J. Du Chesne Pract. Chymicall & Hermeticall Physicke i. xiii. 57 A most pure and perfect body, replenished with vital spirits, and full of vegetation.
1650 W. Charleton tr. J. B. van Helmont Deliramenta Catarrhi 39 The yellow, ashcoloured, and fulsom spittle of men in Consumtions, are errors of the Custos, or President of Vegetation in the Lungs.
1708 Censura Temporum Oct. 301 Vegetation, when attributed to..the Person, is only to be understood of his Body.
1755 E. Young Centaur vi, in Wks. (1757) IV. 281 The light of God's countenance is the sun of the human soul, whence all its vegetation of real felicity.
1813 H. Davy Elements Agric. Chem. i. 7 The phenomena of vegetation must be considered as an important branch of the science of organized Nature.
1892 Brit. Jrnl. Dental Sci. 35 79 Almost all the symptoms of its [sc. the pyocyaneus bacillus's] action can be produced by the injection of the products of its vegetation outside of the body—i.e., of a sterilized culture.
1922 P. A. Finney Moral Probl. Hosp. Pract. ii. i. 31 The process of vegetation in our present state is identical with that first cell-fission.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > mental capacity > spirituality > mind, soul, spirit, heart > origin of mind or soul > [noun] > growth
vegetation1613
psychokinesis1920
1613 S. Purchas Pilgrimage 16 One soul hath those three essentiall faculties of Vnderstanding, Will, and Memorie, or (as others) of Vegetation, Sense, and Reason.
1620 T. Granger Syntagma Logicum 55 Sence, and vegetation is an effect by emanation of the soule.
1689 R. Cox Hibernia Anglicana: Pt. 1 sig. hv Continual Meditation of Scripture adds Vigour and Vegetation to the Soul.
1708 Church of Eng. Primitive 94 Man hath besides his immortal Soul, a Soul of Sense, and a Soul of Vegetation.
1745 D. De Coetlogon Universal Hist. Arts & Sci. I. 115/2 That very same Soul, which is capable of Rationality in Man, is also capable of Sensation and Vegetation.
ΘΚΠ
the world > existence and causation > creation > [noun] > production > of a plant-like formation
vegetation1671
the world > life > biology > biological processes > development, growth, or degeneration > [noun] > growth > action or faculty of > of inorganic substances
vegetation1671
1671 J. Webster Metallographia xiv. 210 And though he do not tell its weight, nor quantity, yet it seems to have been no very small piece, but is a wonderful and rare evidence of the vegetation of this Metal.
1707 tr. P. Le Lorrain de Vallemont Curiosities in Husbandry & Gardening 305 The Artificial Vegetation of Silver, commonly called Diana's Tree.
1748 tr. P. Lozano True Relation Earthquake Lima Pref. 11 As a Proof of the quick Vegitation of Silver.
1789 Edinb. Mag. Mar. 176/1 This vegetation may be encouraged in some salts by adding a superabundance of acid to their solution.
1823 A. Ure Dict. Chem. (ed. 2) (at cited word) The Influence of the Air and Light upon the Vegetation of Salts.
ΘΚΠ
the world > plants > by growth or development > [noun] > instance of
vegetation1672
1672 N. Grew Anat. Veg. i. 2 The Method of Nature her self, in her continued Series of Vegetations, proceeding from the Seed sown, to the formation of the Root.
1747 R. James Pharmacopœia Universalis i. ii. 31/2 Which does not depend upon the Water itself, but upon the Matter which is mix'd with it, as is sufficiently obvious from Fermentations and the Vegetations of Plants.
1779 Philos. Trans. (Royal Soc.) 69 227 The time of..the successive appearances of all these different vegetations, seem so many proofs to the fundamental part of my method.
4. figurative. Dull, inactive existence; the action or process of leading an empty, unchallenging life, without intellectual or social activity.
ΘΚΠ
the world > action or operation > inaction > disinclination to act or listlessness > [noun] > as a way of life
vegetation1760
vegetating1923
1760 Lady M. W. Montagu Let. 25 Oct. (1967) III. 245 I am not surpriz'd at the long Vegetation of the D[uche]sse of Argyle.
1797 W. Godwin Enquirer i. xiii. 114 His state is rather a state of vegetation.
1833 T. Hook Parson's Daughter I. xi. 227 In this state of vegetation he remained until about ten o'clock.
1854 J. S. C. Abbott Napoleon (1855) I. xvi. 290 Hedouville..went to spend a life of mere vegetation in Spain.
1882 M. E. Braddon Mt. Royal II. iv. 53 You can't expect to find much difference in me after three years' vegetation in Cornwall.
1927 C. H. Lyttle in C. W. Reese Humanist Serm. ii. 28 Does..utter loneliness or oblivion or dull vegetation succeed the love the laughter, the vivid awareness of these earth hours?
1995 F. Philip tr. L. Constante Silent Escape vii. 237 The prison was just as unbearable to me. It is impossible to get used to bars. To Padlocks. To a life of vegetation.
II. Something that grows; a plant.† 5. A plant; = vegetable n. 1a. Obsolete.
ΘΚΠ
the world > plants > [noun]
thingc1300
vegetablec1484
plantisouna1500
plantouna1500
vegetabilitya1500
vegetativea1500
plant1551
fellow creature1572
vegetal1591
morea1599
vegetive1602
vegetant1605
vegetationa1641
a1641 J. Everard tr. J. d'Espagnet Enchyridion Physicæ Restitutæ (1651) 112 There is so little of the Sun's virtue in them, as will not carry them above the motion of a Vegetation.
1683 T. Tryon Way to Health 518 At which times all Vegitations are in their flourishing state.
1691 T. Tryon Wisdom's Dictates 110 The pleasant Ferment..of the Stomach can with much more facility..disgest Vegitations, than Flesh or Fish.
1707 tr. P. Le Lorrain de Vallemont Curiosities in Husbandry & Gardening 29 Some Vegetations,..as..Mushrooms and Mosses: the maritime Vegetations,..are not properly Plants.
1799 J. G. Dalyell tr. L. Spallanzani Tracts Nature of Animals & Veg. 203 All these vegetations appeared to be diseased, whether from decay before producing fruit, or because their colour was yellowish.
1836 J. Lindley Nat. Syst. Bot. (ed. 2) 418 We must regard all the forms of lower Algæ as vegetations of a very simple structure.
1890 R. I. Hindman 1001 Questions & Answers Bot. 108 Neither aquatic nor parasitic vegetations are reckoned among them.
6. † b. A tree-like pattern of lines sometimes seen on the objective lens of a telescope, attributed to the penetration of moist air between the lenses. Obsolete.
a. Chemistry. An arborescent growth of crystals of a substance, formed in a solution or on a surface. Cf. sense 2. Now historical and rare.
ΘΚΠ
the world > matter > chemistry > chemical reactions or processes > [noun] > chemical reactions (general) > plant-like growth or formation due to
vegetation1717
1717 J. Chamberlayne tr. B. Le B. de Fontenelle Lives French, Ital., & German Philosophers 335 This Vegetation of Iron may as justly be called the Tree of Mars.
1791 Philos. Trans. 1790 (Royal Soc.) 80 378 Bergman relates, that he has sometimes observed beautiful crystallizations or vegetations of metallic silver formed on pieces of iron immersed long in a solution of silver.
1800 tr. E. J. B. Bouillon-Lagrange Man. Course Chem. II. 133 At the end of some hours there will be formed, at the surface of the small mass of amalgam, a vegetation in the form of a bush.
1849 J. R. Jackson Min. & Uses 287 A pretty metallic vegetation in glass jars:..called the Tree of Diana.
1903 Electr. World & Engineer 7 Mar. 412/1 An article illustrated by many interesting photographs showing the peculiar forms of metallic ‘vegetation’.
2004 A. G. Debus Alchemy & Early Mod. Chem. 526 Louis Lemery exhibited the ‘Tree of Mars’, a metallic vegetation of iron in place of silver.
ΚΠ
1815 Philos. Mag. 46 128 Unless they are very carefully kept dry, the damp air will penetrate between the glasses, and produce a sort of fog, or sometimes an arborescent vegetation like sea-weed.
1870 Eng. Mech. 21 Jan. 448/2 In old object glasses there is occasionally an appearance which has been called ‘vegetation’, and which consists of a number of very thin lines disposed in an arborescent form.
7. Plants or plant life collectively; the plants growing in a particular area, habitat, etc.; an example of this. Also: plants represented in painting, sculpture, etc.Now the usual sense.
ΘΚΠ
the world > plants > plants collectively > [noun]
greenOE
plantage1609
vegetation1744
greenery1816
macrovegetation1958
1744 J. Thomson Summer in Seasons (new ed.) 73 Deep to the Root Of Vegetation parch'd, the cleaving Fields..an arid Hue disclose.
1794 A. Radcliffe Myst. of Udolpho IV. v. 76 The paths were rude and frequently overgrown with vegetation.
1813 P. B. Shelley Queen Mab viii. 107 Blue mists..Scattered the seeds of pestilence, and fed Unnatural vegetation.
1847 J. Leitch tr. K. O. Müller Ancient Art §275. 265 The Corinthian places in the room of the simple bulge of the Doric order a slender body..gradually enlarging and richly clothed with vegetation.
1859 C. Darwin Origin of Species iii. 74 When an American forest is cut down, a very different vegetation springs up.
1881 Nature 8 Sept. 448/2 An admirable summary of the vegetation of the different regions of the globe.
1904 Jrnl. N.Y. Bot. Garden 5 176 The lower reaches exhibiting a vegetation which became most monotonous by its constant repetition.
1956 Newsweek 22 Oct. 26/2 His theory that higher forms of vegetation, similar to trees, exist on Mars.
1984 Hesperia 53 107 The fresco of Room 1..is decorated with vegetation and flowers on a black background.
1993 M. J. Plotkin Tales Shaman's Apprentice iii. 63 The first European explorers..saw the forest as I was now seeing it—a riot of vegetation growing down to the river's edge.
2010 Guardian 25 Jan. 18/5 The fine-leaved vegetation of the fynbos of Table Mountain..revealed the purple flower of the alice sundew.
8. Medicine. A plant-like or fungoid growth or excrescence on a surface of the body; esp. a thrombus or fibrotic lesion of this kind found on a heart valve or the endocardium in conditions such as rheumatic fever and subacute bacterial endocarditis.
ΘΚΠ
the world > health and disease > ill health > a disease > growth or excrescence > [noun] > fungous
flower1668
fungosity1670
vegetation1762
fungation1827
fungoid1873
1762 S. Ingham tr. G. J. Duverney Dis. Bones i. v. 70 The pituitary Membrane is beset with a great Number of Glands, that may occasion Vegetations, or Excrescences, called Polypusses.
1811 Edinb. Med. & Surg. Jrnl. 7 76 Corvisart has met with some cases of what he calls vegetations of the valves; certain soft irregular excrescences, resembling some venereal crested and cauliflowered-like tumors.
1861 F. J. Bumstead Pathol. & Treatm. Venereal Dis. i. xii. 218 Vegetations are papillary growths springing from the skin or mucous membrane chiefly in the neighborhood of the genital organs.
1890 J. Cagney tr. R. von Jaksch Clin. Diagnosis iii. 64 In a few cases, thrush fungus and vegetations have been found in the nose.
1928 C. S. Whitehead & C. A. Hoff Ethical Sex Relations (new ed.) i. vii. 271 Among the other hurtful consequences of a neglect in these particulars is the growth of peculiar vegetations, or warts, which pour out a purulent and very offensive matter.
1968 H. O. Mackey & J. P. Mackey Handbk. Dis. Skin (ed. 9) xxx. 318 Keratosis follicularis is characterized by dark warty follicular papules which..may fuse to form papillomatous malodorous vegetations in the flexures.
2006 Lancet 25 Feb. 680/2 Endocarditis accounts for 60–70% of chronic Q fever... Fever is often absent, and vegetations are usually absent or small.
Compounds
Used attributively with reference to the death and regeneration of plant life and the alternation of the seasons as symbolized or represented in religious or cultic beliefs and rituals.
ΘΚΠ
society > faith > aspects of faith > religion > kinds of religions > [adjective] > natural
naturalist1830
naturalistic1838
naturalized1858
vegetation1878
pre-animistic1891
1878 W. R. S. Ralston in Contemp. Rev. Feb. 536 A reference to vegetation-spirits and their foes.
1914 J. G. Frazer Golden Bough: Adonis Attis Osiris (ed. 3) II. iii. vii. 126 (note) Professor Ed. Meyer also formerly regarded Osiris as a sun-god; he now interprets him as a great vegetation god.
1920 H. B. Alexander in L. H. Gray & G. F. Moore Mythol. All Races XI. i. 25 Here there seems to be indication of a vegetation cult.
1967 Listener 6 Apr. 471/3 It [sc. the Easter holiday] should have been all outside broadcasts of drunken baroque processions.., villages abusing each other's religious banners.., vegetation ceremonies still describable in pace-egging and mummers' plays.
1998 N.Y. Rev. Bks. 24 Sept. 60/3 He is not after Platonic ideals but totems, fetishes, vegetation deities, transvestite gods, blood sacrifice, speaking posts, chthonic magic.
Derivatives
vegeˈtationless adj.
ΘΚΠ
the world > the earth > land > landscape > fertile land or place > land with vegetation > [adjective] > lacking
nakedOE
peeled?a1513
unverdanta1657
verdureless1824
plantless1842
vegetationless1846
1846 London Jrnl. Bot. 5 426 Before us were mountains—bleak, snow-clad, vegetationless mountains.
1932 Ecology 13 213 These circular, vegetationless regions are generally referred to as ‘cleared’ or ‘denuded’ areas.
2005 Gazette (Montreal) (Nexis) 5 Aug. d6 In this case the apocalypse was ‘ozone abuse’ which left all of Earth a scorched, vegetationless rock.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, March 2012; most recently modified version published online June 2022).
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