vegetativeadj.n.
/ˈvɛdʒᵻtətɪv/, U.S. /ˈvɛdʒəˌteɪdɪv/ A. adj.† 3. Designating one of the several varieties of the philosophers' stone; cf. vegetable stone n. at vegetable adj. Compounds 2. Obsolete.
1. † b. That grows and develops; living and growing as a plant; = vegetable adj. 2a. Obsolete.figurative in quot. 1782.
a. In certain philosophical and theological systems: designating the soul, or that part of the soul, which is associated with the most basic functions of life (growth, development, reproduction) as distinguished from sensation and reason; having such a soul. Cf. vegetable adj. 1. Now chiefly historical.The vegetative soul was considered by Aristotle to be present in all living things and was distinguished from the sensitive soul, present in animals, including humans, and the intellective soul, present in humans alone.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > mental capacity > spirituality > mind, soul, spirit, heart > origin of mind or soul > [adjective] > growth
vegetativea1398
vegetive1606
a1398 J. Trevisa tr. Bartholomaeus Anglicus De Proprietatibus Rerum (BL Add. 27944) (1975) I. iii. xiii. 102 Þe [soule] vegetatiue desireþ to be,..and þe resonabil soule desireþ to be best.
1483 W. Caxton tr. J. de Voragine Golden Legende 357 b/1 Alle thyngys obeyed to this holy man as well thynges not sensible as vegetatyf and not resonable.
a1500 (c1477) T. Norton Ordinal of Alchemy (BL Add.) (1975) l. 430 (MED) Nothing multiplied shal ye fynde, But it be of vegetatife or of sensityfe kynd.
1531 T. Elyot Bk. named Gouernour iii. xxiii. sig. gvv The one [part of the soul] wherin is the powar or efficacie of growinge, which is also in herbes and trees.., and that parte is callen vegetatife.
1594 T. Bowes tr. P. de la Primaudaye French Acad. II. 338 That order, which God hath set betweene the vertues of the Vegetatiue soule for the nourishing of the bodie.
1609 Bible (Douay) I. Gen. vi. comm. The powre or force to engender belongeth to the vegetative soul.
1657 J. Davies tr. G. Naudé Hist. Magick xviii. 250 The Soul whereby they did it, must be vegetative, sensitive, or rational.
1670 R. Graham Angliæ Speculum Morale 5 None but sensitive and vegetative Creatures pursue the primitive end of their institutions.
1691 J. Ray Wisdom of God 35 For my part, I should make no Scruple to attribute the formation of Plants, their growth and nutrition to the vegetative Soul in them.
1711 R. Steele Spectator No. 100. ⁋2 The indolent Man descends from the Dignity of his Nature, and makes that Being which was Rational merely Vegetative.
1725 I. Watts Logick i. vi. §3 Our elder Philosophers have generally made use of the Word Soul to signify that Principle whereby a Plant grows, and they called it the vegetative Soul.
1788 N. Tucker tr. E. Swedenborg Wisdom of Angels 50 Their vegetative Soul is Use, whereof they are the Forms.
1808 J. Barclay Muscular Motions 262 The ancient Δυναμεις, the ministers of Physis, were classed by Plato under three souls, the rational, animal, and vegetative.
1879 J. Tyndall Fragm. Sci. II. xi. 243 How..is this vegetative soul to be presented to the mind? where did it flourish before the tree grew?
1916 I. Husik Hist. Mediaeval Jewish Philos. vii. 111 We learn of the existence of the vegetative soul from the nourishment, growth and reproduction evidenced by the individual.
1974 J. C. Eccles in F. J. Ayala & T. Dobzhansky Stud. Philos. Biol. 88 I fail to distinguish between these modern philosophic views and the ancient Aristotelian concepts of vegetative soul, sensitive soul and rational soul.
2004 Record (Bergen County, New Jersey) (Nexis) 10 May l06 Before that time, the human embryo has an animal, but not a human, soul, and, even before that, a vegetative soul.
ΘΚΠ
the world > plants > by growth or development > [adjective]
quickOE
vegetablec1425
adolent?1440
vegetative1509
vegetate1574
vegetarya1595
vegetating1605
1509 S. Hawes Pastyme of Pleasure (de Worde) xxii. sig. I.iv.v Herbes and fruytes..In erthe he planted for to haue theyr lyfe By dyuers vertues and sundry growynge So to contynue and be vegytatyfe.
1601 P. Holland tr. Pliny Hist. World I. xvii. xxi This marrow, this vegetative and vitall substance.
1613 T. Milles tr. P. Mexia et al. Treasurie Auncient & Moderne Times 32 The vegetative Bodies; as Plants, Trees, and such like.
1782 T. Paine Let. to Abbe Raynal (1791) 40 The mind is presented with a wide extended prospect of vegetative good, and sees a thousand blessings budding into existence.
1796 Bp. R. Watson Apol. for Bible 318 Somewhat after the way of your vegetative speck in the kernel of a peach.
1811 L.-M. Hawkins Countess & Gertrude I. xxx. 262 The vegetative adhesions [to books] of the undisturbed damp.
1853 G. Johnston Terra Lindisfarnensis I. 220 A very common weed, and so vegetative and retentive of life that it requires much labour..to clear the lands infested with it.
1880 C. Darwin & F. Darwin Power of Movement in Plants 523 When a new root-cap and vegetative point had been formed, they bent themselves perpendicularly downwards.
2. Promoting or inducing the growth of plants.
ΘΚΠ
the world > the earth > land > landscape > fertile land or place > [adjective] > making
vegetative?a1450
fertile1597
impregnating1705
fecund1827
?a1450 ( J. Lydgate Serpent of Division (McClean) (1911) 55 Þe vegitatife vertu..ascendit into brawnches..and causith hem to budde and blossome newe.
1594 H. Plat Diuerse Sorts of Soyle 3 in Jewell House A Philosophicall discourse..vpon the vegetatiue and fructifying Salt of Nature.
1612 H. Peacham Gentlemans Exercise ii. iii. 122 The vegetatiue humour or moisture that quickneth and giueth life to trees, plants, herbs and flowers, whereby they grow and increase.
1676 J. Evelyn Philos. Disc. Earth 119 Composts..are by no means fit for the Earth,..unless..so order'd, as..to..communicate heat, and vegetative Spirits to what you shall apply them.
1707 J. Mortimer Whole Art Husbandry 81 Fullers-earth is..very full of that vegetative Salt that helps the growth of Plants.
1782 J. H. St. J. de Crèvecoeur Lett. from Amer. Farmer iii. 50 In Europe they were as so many useless plants, wanting vegitative mould, and refreshing showers.
1818 R. Alsop Universal Receipt Bk. (ed. 2) 355 (heading) French vegetative liquid for making bulbous roots beautifully flower in ornamental glasses..without the aid of earth.
1853 E. K. Kane U.S. Grinnell Exped. xviii. 138 The question whether unmixed snow can act as a vegetative matrix.
1908 Q. Jrnl. Forestry 2 272 The grass does not grow well when the vegetative soil is removed.
1991 W. L. Muth in Y. H. Chiu & J. L. Gueriguian Drug Biotechnol. Regulation i. iii. 162 The fermentation process itself starts off with a phenotypically correct clone, isolated from a working seed lot used to inoculate one or several flasks containing vegetative medium.
ΘΚΠ
the world > health and disease > healing > medicines or physic > [noun] > a medicine or medicament > non-remedial medicine > elixirs of life
stone1390
philosophers' stonea1393
vegetativec1450
ferment1471
egg of philosophersc1484
vegetable stonea1500
vegetant stone1576
philosophical stone1581
elixir1605
philosophers' work1612
philosophic stone1647
water stone of the wise men1649
elixir of youth1725
the world > the supernatural > the occult > sorcery, witchcraft, or magic > enchantment or casting spells > [noun] > occult medicine > elixirs of life
stone1390
philosophers' stonea1393
vegetativec1450
ferment1471
egg of philosophersc1484
vegetable stonea1500
vegetant stone1576
philosophical stone1581
amphicome1601
erotylos1601
elixir1605
philosophers' work1612
philosophic stone1647
elixir of youth1725
c1450 J. Lydgate Secrees (Sloane 2464) l. 531 Of stoonys, Specially of three—Oon myneral, Anothir vegetatyff, Partyd on foure to lengthe a mannys lyff.
1680 J. F. Houpreght Aurifontina Chymica 74 If you desire to have the Philosophers Stone, you must of necessity first have the fifth Essence of that same Stone, whether it be Mineral or Vegetative.
4.
a. Of, relating to, connected with, or characterized by the process of growth. In early use esp. of a power, faculty, or principle.
ΘΚΠ
the world > life > biology > biological processes > development, growth, or degeneration > [adjective] > growth
growinga900
vegetativec1460
crescive1566
vegetive1615
accretive1661
accrescent1713
growthful1849
the world > existence and causation > existence > materiality > immateriality > [adjective] > characterized by growth (of principle, etc.)
vegetativec1460
c1460 J. Lydgate Minor Poems (1934) ii. 736 To tempre the spiritis by vertu vegetatiff.
a1500 (?a1425) tr. Secreta Secret. (Lamb.) 96 Þe wirkynge of þis last [virtue], (þat þe Auctour clepys vegetatyf, & I here strenght sustantyf).
1588 E. Aggas tr. F. de La Noue Politicke & Mil. Disc. xxiii. 298 The true matter must of necessitie haue in it a great vegetatiue power, and some similitude with that substance whereinto it shoulde be transformed.
1594 H. Plat Diuerse Sorts of Soyle 16 in Jewell House To proue that salt is no enemie, either to the vegetatiue, or sensatiue natures.
1606 L. Bryskett Disc. Ciuill Life 44 This power of the soule..is called vegetatiue (you must giue me leaue to vse new words of Art..) because it giueth life and increase to growing things.
1647 H. More Philos. Poems Interpr. Gen. 432 That immense diffusion of atoms, is to be referred to Psyche, as an internall vegetative act.
1653 W. Ramesey Astrologia Restaurata 215 All things decay and diminish in their vegetative vigour.
1683 T. Tryon Way to Health 130 [In] Winter..the Vegitative Quality stands as it were still.
1712 J. Hughes Spectator No. 554. ⁋12 The Soul has in this Respect a certain vegetative Power, which cannot lie wholly idle.
1762 J. Hall-Stevenson Crazy Tales 7 The work of vegetative laws.
a1800 W. Cowper Yardley-Oak in W. Hayley Life & Posthumous Writings Cowper (1804) III. 410 Thou fell'st mature, and in the loamy clod Swelling with vegetative force instinct Didst burst thine egg.
1802 G. Morris in J. Sparks Life G. Morris (1832) III. 161 There is a vigorous vegetative principle at the root which will make our tree flourish.
1836 J. Gilbert Christian Atonem. iv. 127 A survey of the minute action of vegetative energies.
1874 J. S. Blackie On Self-culture 41 This growth is a constant and habitual exercise of vital or vegetative force.
1880 S. Haughton Six Lect. Physical Geogr. vi. 301 The Europasian Forest region is characterized by a pretty uniform temperature during the vegetative season.
1918 J. M. Macfarlane Causes & Course Org. Evol. v. 98 In the Acaryota..we deal with only one life substance—protoplasm—that exhibits all the fundamental vegetative qualities associated with the protoplasm of even the highest of the Caryota.
1953 J. Parr Tamburlaine's Malady i. 13 The vegetative faculty, provided by the liver, promotes nutrition, growth, and reproduction.
1998 V. Geist Deer of World i. 13/2 In seasonal climates, the vegetative season provides temporary but regular food surpluses.
b. Designating the most basic type of life, associated with the vegetative soul or (esp. in later use) with plants. Also: comprising vegetation (vegetation n. 7).
ΘΚΠ
the world > life > source or principle of life > [adjective] > living and growing
vegetablec1425
vegetal1490
sustenablea1500
vegetative1567
vegetated1697
the world > life > biology > biological processes > development, growth, or degeneration > [adjective] > growth > of a season, quality, life, etc.
vegetative1567
1567 J. Maplet Greene Forest f. 25v For in them is the life vegetatiue or that life which nourisheth.
1600 R. Surflet tr. C. Estienne & J. Liébault Maison Rustique i. ix. 47 The Sunne..giueth vnto earthly bodies their forme and vegetatiue life.
1678 J. Norris Coll. Misc. (1699) 251 In Rationals [there is] Vegetative Life, Sense and Reason.
1726 G. Leoni tr. L. B. Alberti Architecture I. 5/2 Plants, Seeds, and every thing else that has the vegetative Life.
1852 Mag. Hort. Nov. 496 The infinite diversity of vegetative existence.
1907 Times 9 Nov. 4/1 The soil soaked deeply once again with the moisture which is essential for vegetative life.
1925 Bot. Gaz. 80 213 The conditions for vegetative life are very different in its southern subarctic part.
1998 S. J. Dick Life on other Worlds ii. 43 In the search for vegetative life on Mars new astrophysical methods were supplementing the visual topographic tradition, dominant in Martian studies.
5. Consisting of or derived from vegetables or plants.
ΘΚΠ
the world > plants > [adjective]
vegetablea1500
vegetive1526
vegetant?1553
plantlike1567
vegetable1582
vegetal1596
plantal1642
vegetative1662
veg1765
vegetably1834
phytoid1853
phytiform1890
1662 R. Mathews Unlearned Alchymist (new ed.) 2 This pill is a Corrector of all Vegetative poysons.
1691 T. Tryon Wisdom's Dictates 110 All Vegetative Foods are not only wholsom, but easily concocted.
1811 T. Coke Hist. W. Indies III. xli. 189 Vegetative poisons were known long before Columbus, and poisoned arrows were ranked among the most disastrous instruments of war.
1834 Brit. Husbandry (Libr. Useful Knowl.) I. 360 The vegetative mould which covers the earth in all situations undisturbed by the plough.
1870 Monthly Homœopathic Rev. 14 669 Lycopodium, as a vegetative remedy, acts most powerfully on the nutritive changes of the body.
1909 J. Q. Dealey Sociol. v. 100 It was through farming that men..passed definitely from the flesh diet of nomadism to vegetative foods.
1995 Evening Standard (Nexis) 24 Apr. 54 There is such a haven:..a slightly ramshackle collection of restaurants, shops and vegetative products whose quirky rusticity makes a welcome contrast with the hustling bustle of SW3.
6. Designating the division of the natural world to which plants (and in early use all non-animal living organisms) belong; = vegetable adj. 3.
ΚΠ
1665 Disc. conc. Devils & Spirits v. 63 in R. Scot Discov. Witchcraft (ed. 3) There is not any loathsome taste in the Kingdome of this World, either Animal, Vegetative, or Mineral, which they are at any time void of.
1677 R. Plot Nat. Hist. Oxford-shire 175 Having done with the Vegetative, I proceed to the Animal Kingdom.
1695 Ld. Preston tr. Boethius Of Consol. Philos. iii. 144 I, casting an Eye upon the Vegetative World, consider Herbs and Trees.
1722 W. Wollaston Relig. of Nature ix. 209 I think I may be sure that neither lifeless matter, nor the vegetative tribe,..have any reflex thoughts.
1790 Coll. Voy. round World I. ii. 39 In regard to the vegetative and brute creation.
1859 I. Taylor Logic in Theol. 44 The living world, vegetative and animal.
1868 Chromolithograph 17 Oct. 29/2 His [sc. an artist's] first and principal aim must be that of being enabled..to appreciate and understand the characteristic features of the vegetative world.
1915 Amer. Catholic Q. Rev. Oct. 574 He was capable, moreover, of feeding and growing and multiplying in the same way as the rest of the vegetative kingdom.
2003 P. Monaghan Red-haired Girl from Bog (2004) iii. 47 There on the tundra..I sense beneath my feet a separate and discrete world, both museum and mausoleum of the vegetative kingdom.
7.
a. figurative. Monotonous, dull; inactive, unchallenging.
ΘΚΠ
the world > action or operation > inaction > disinclination to act or listlessness > [adjective]
unlustyc1225
sleepyc1384
phlegmatica1400
listlessc1440
owlist1440
unlisty1440
phlegmyc1450
sweyntc1450
supine1554
resty1565
unactive1591
sleepy-headed1600
log-like1602
inertious1611
stupefied?1611
lethargic1612
sedentary1625
torpent1647
torpid1656
torpulent1657
softly1664
inert1774
vegetative1789
spiritless1798
unenergetic1805
sloomy1820
slow-going1825
inenergetic1826
comatose1828
moony1847
mooning1864
torpid-minded1909
narcoleptic1965
vegged1986
1789 Edinb. Mag. Dec. 427 In this dull scene of vegetative existence, her only resource against ennui was in books.
1802 E. Parsons Myst. Visit IV. 74 In this vegetative state of happiness you found me.
1846 H. T. Tuckerman Thoughts on Poets 305 Routine gradually congeals their sensibilities. To invade this vegetative existence is the poet's vocation.
1906 Appleton's Mag. Feb. 170/2 The dull, vegetative routine of domestic duty.
1998 Africa News (Nexis) 4 Dec. Some have descended into a despicable vegetative existence, engaging in nothing more than eating, drinking, smoking, screwing and sleeping.
b. Chiefly Medicine. Characterized by visceral functions only; having autonomic nervous function only; esp. lacking consciousness, cognitive function, and voluntary movement.persistent vegetative state: see the first element.
ΘΚΠ
the world > health and disease > ill health > a disease > characteristics > [adjective] > other characteristics
hoteOE
redeOE
foulOE
elvishc1386
dryc1400
whitec1450
Naples1507
shaking1528
cold1569
exquisite1583
unpure1583
waterish1583
wandering1585
legitimate1615
sulphureous1625
tetrous1637
cagastrical1662
medical1676
ambulatory1684
ebullient1684
frantic1709
animated1721
progressive1736
cagastric1753
vegetative1803
left-handed1804
specific1804
subacute1811
animate1816
gregarious1822
vernal1822
ambilateral1824
subchronic1831
regressive1845
nummular1866
postoperative1872
ambulant1873
non-surgical1888
progredient1891
spodogenous1897
spodogenic19..
non-invasive1932
early-onset1951
adult-onset1957
non-specific1964
the mind > mental capacity > intellect > want of intellect > life of vegetable > [adjective]
vegetal1490
vegetarya1595
vegetive1878
vegetative1893
1803 R. Kerrison tr. A. Richerand Elements Physiol. 40 If the great sympathetic nerves exist in all animals that have a distinct nervous system, do they not peculiarly contain the principle of this vegetative life [Fr. le principe de cette vie végétative], essential to the existence of every organized being, and to which belong the phenomena of digestion, absorption, the circulation, secretions, and of nutrition?
1836 Boston Med. & Surg. Jrnl. 6 July 346 The fœtus appears to be in a vegetative state.
1840 Brit. & Foreign Med. Rev. 9 17 On the serous layer [of the blastoderma] arise the organs of animal life..; on the mucous, the organs of vegetative life—the intestinal canal, the lungs, liver, spleen, pancreas and other glands.
1893 Daily News 25 Apr. 5/4 He is in what his doctor calls a vegetative state, and incapable of connecting two ideas together.
1969 Sci. Jrnl. Feb. 11/3 Two other patients..had flat eeg readings for prolonged periods, but subsequently recovered, although they remained ‘vegetative’.
1986 Washington Post 31 Dec. a6/3 I had one patient who became vegetative during the study. Absolutely a vegetable, a mute.
2006 Jrnl. Med. Ethics 32 446/2 I have seen some of the patients in this vegetative condition who are in a fetal position and they have to feed them with a syringe.
8.
a. Chiefly Botany. Relating to or concerned with growth and development, rather than sexual reproduction. Cf. somatic adj. 1c. See also vegetative cell n.
ΘΚΠ
the world > plants > part of plant > growth, movement, or curvature of parts > [adjective] > concerned with growth
vegetative1845
the world > life > biology > biological processes > development, growth, or degeneration > [adjective] > growth > of growth as opposed to reproduction
vegetative1845
1845 H. C. Watson in London Jrnl. Bot. 4 231 The generic characters are given with accuracy and detail, and are taken chiefly from those organs, whether reproductive or vegetative, which have appeared in each case the most constant.
1857 W. R. Bullock tr. P. Cazeaux Theoret. & Pract. Treat. Midwifery (ed. 2) 172 One has been called the external, or serous layer, and the other is denominated the internal, mucous, or the vegetative one.
1884 F. O. Bower & D. H. Scott tr. H. A. de Bary Compar. Anat. Phanerogams & Ferns Introd. 2 Under the term vegetative organs we include all those organs of the plant which are not organs of reproduction.
1905 Jrnl. Royal Hort. Soc. 31 5 The cause of the change of form of the leaf in these cases is due to the relaxation of the vegetative function on the arrival of the period of flowering.
1946 A. Nelson Princ. Agric. Bot. xxvii. 535 These are borne on modified leaves arranged in cones as in the horsetail, or more usually on unmodified vegetative leaves as in ferns.
1966 Times 23 Aug. 7/1 The mycelium or vegetative part of the fungus body occurs as silvery-grey or mouse-grey sheets, tinged here and there with lilac.
2007 Ecology 88 1765/2 Plant populations that establish on novel soil types will experience new selective pressures on both vegetative and floral features simultaneously.
b. Chiefly Botany. Designating reproduction or propagation achieved by asexual means, which in plants may occur naturally (by rhizomes, runners, bulbs, etc.) or artificially (by grafting, layering, or taking cuttings).
ΚΠ
1855 J. W. Griffith & A. Henfrey Micrographic Dict. (1856) 287/2 The lower animals and all plants are capable of an asexual or vegetative reproduction, by the isolation and separation of a portion of their substance.
1896 Bot. Gaz. 22 226 The reproduction of the earliest plants was undoubtedly vegetative reproduction.
1925 D. F. Jones Genetics Plant & Animal Improvem. xi. 278 Many plants in the wild have largely given up reproduction by seed and depend upon some method of vegetative division..for their multiplication and dispersal.
1985 Times 26 Mar. 14/5 Propagation by vegetative means can be more successful, although peonies do not like being disturbed and divided plants may take a long time to recover.
2006 P. Taylor Oxf. Compan. Garden 394/2 A significant penalty of all forms of vegetative propagation is that any diseases and pests afflicting the parent plant are very likely to be present in or on its progeny.
c. Biology. Designating a stage in the replication of a virus at which non-infective viral components are synthesized and assembled within the host cell; of or relating to this stage.
ΘΚΠ
the world > life > biology > organism > micro-organism > virus > [adjective] > forms of
vegetative1953
proviral1961
1953 M. Delbrück in Cold Spring Harbor Symp. Quantitative Biol. 18 1/1 One new feature is the recognition that the infecting virus undergoes an essential change before it multiplies. The multiplying form is here called the vegetative phase, in analogy to the use of the word ‘vegetative’ in the bacteriology of sporulating bacteria.
1962 Brit. Med. Jrnl. 21 July 171/2 Mating occurs between pairs of the linearly ordered nucleic acids derived from the several virus particles which have established the common vegetative pool.
1973 R. G. Krueger et al. Introd. Microbiol. xviii. 507/1 The presence of the prophage or phage genome in the cell rendered the cell immune to vegetative replication of other similar temperate phage particles by the same mechanism that limited its own vegetative replication.
2001 J. D. Watson Genes, Girls & Gamow iii. 18 Max [Delbrück] had ridiculed the idea that viruses could exist within certain cells in a latent proviral form distinct from the vegetative phase.
B. n.† 2. In plural. The faculties or powers associated with the vegetable soul. Obsolete. rare.
1. An organism capable of growth and development but devoid of sensation and thought; spec. a plant (esp. as contrasted with an animal or human being). Now rare.
ΘΚΠ
the world > plants > [noun]
thingc1300
vegetablec1484
plantisouna1500
plantouna1500
vegetabilitya1500
vegetativea1500
plant1551
fellow creature1572
vegetal1591
morea1599
vegetive1602
vegetant1605
vegetationa1641
a1500 (c1477) T. Norton Ordinal of Alchemy (BL Add.) (1975) 1890 Inward & owtward be contrarie in thingis alle, which is trew excepte such thingis as be Of litill composicion, and nye to simplicite, As is scamony, & laureolle the laxatife, whiche be not norisshing to vegetatife.
1628 O. Felltham Resolves: 2nd Cent. xcviii. sig. Bb8 Even Plants, which are but Vegetatiues, will not grow in Caues, where the..Ayre is barred from them.
1668 Earl of Clarendon Ess. in Tracts (1727) 93 We live rather the Life of Vegetatives or Sensitives..than the lives of reasonable men.
1712 E. Cooke Voy. S. Sea 210 Having run over the living Creatures and Vegetatives.
1764 in 10th Rep. Royal Comm. Hist. MSS (1885) App. i. 372 We are vegetatives formed by education.
1804 S. Shaw Serm. Several Important Subj. v. 72 Sensitives and vegetatives..with a natural vigour and vitality, grow up daily towards a perfect state and stature.
1905 R. Aull Ann. Rep. Park Commissioner 16 in Mayor's Message (City of St. Louis, Missouri) This [sc. smog] is certainly a very detrimental and deadly enemy to the growth of all vegetatives.
1989 Altoona (Pa.) Mirror 15 Oct. 24/3 This is the first year I've seen complete food failure of vegetatives.
ΘΚΠ
the world > life > biology > biological processes > development, growth, or degeneration > [noun] > growth > action or faculty of
vegetation1564
vegetatives1605
vegetity1628
vegetativeness1727
1605 T. Tymme tr. J. Du Chesne Pract. Chymicall & Hermeticall Physicke i. xiv. 68 In vegetables there were only those vegetatiues; which, in beastes, beside the vegetation which they retain,..become also sensatiue.
Compounds
vegetative cell n. Biology any cell of a living organism other than those involved in sexual reproduction; a somatic cell.
ΚΠ
1846 A. Henfrey tr. C. Nägeli in Rep. & Papers Bot. (Ray Soc.) 226 The Floridæ possess nuclei of various kinds. A small whitish nucleus occasionally lies upon the wall in vegetative cells.
1882 S. H. Vines tr. J. von Sachs Text-bk. Bot. (ed. 2) 246 The multiplication of individuals being effected by the separation of the ordinary vegetative cells.
1910 Jrnl. Morphol. 21 564 In the history of both the race and the individual, the separation of the reproductive from the vegetative cells may be the earliest differentiation.
2010 S. J. Forsythe Microbiol. Safe Food (ed. 2) ii. 55 The spore is more resistant to heat, drying, pH, and so on, than the vegetative cell.
vegetative pole n. Embryology = vegetal pole n. at vegetal adj. and n. Compounds.
ΘΚΠ
the world > life > biology > biological processes > procreation or reproduction > reproductive substances or cells > [noun] > ovum or ootid > fertilized ovum and parts
primitive streak1833
mulberry mass1851
morule1857
morula1875
stirp1875
cytula1876
vegetative pole1876
genoblast1877
mulberry germ1879
parent kernel1879
vegetal pole1881
animal pole1882
amphiaster1885
oosperm1888
segmentation sphere1898
1876 Q. Jrnl. Microsc. Sci. 16 Explan. Plate X After the conclusion of the cleavage-process, there is found..at the vegetative pole, a dark mass of a few (six?) large dark cells.
1909 J. W. Jenkinson Exper. Embryol. 245 A blastopore is in very numerous cases formed at the vegetative pole.
2006 Herpetologica 62 182/1 The animal pole is dark brown and the vegetative pole is creamy white.
Derivatives
ˈvegetatively adv. in vegetative terms; by vegetative means; (chiefly) by asexual means (cf. sense A. 8b).
ΘΚΠ
the world > life > biology > biological processes > development, growth, or degeneration > [adverb]
vegetatively1819
1819 G. Field in Pamphleteer 15 vii. 133 Considered vegetatively, animals are produced seminally in their like kinds in endless succession.
1853 Q. Jrnl. Microsc. Sci. 1 310 In both Plants and Animals, then, there is one histological element, the Endoplast, which does nothing but grow and vegetatively repeat itself.
1886 Encycl. Brit. XX. 431/2 In some instances the one generation may spring vegetatively from the other without the intervention of a spore.
1905 Brit. Med. Jrnl. 25 Feb. 442 They develop into one of the three following forms all of which can reproduce themselves vegetatively.
2001 Independent (Nexis) 15 Sept. (Features section) 10 Vegetatively propagated stock will be more expensive but it is worth it.
ˈvegetativeness n.
ΘΚΠ
the world > life > biology > biological processes > development, growth, or degeneration > [noun] > growth > action or faculty of
vegetation1564
vegetatives1605
vegetity1628
vegetativeness1727
1727 N. Bailey Universal Etymol. Eng. Dict. II Vegetativeness, a vegetative Quality.
1780 T. Sheridan Gen. Dict. Eng. Lang. II Vegetativeness,..the quality of producing growth.
1889 P. Geddes & J. A. Thomson Evol. Sex 48 Superior constitutional vegetativeness in the females [of Lychnis].
1938 Bot. Gaz. 99 621 If short-day plants are grown at day lengths..below the critical period..their vegetativeness is concurrently decreased.
2004 N. Rewa Scenography in Canada vi. 206 The spectators were presented with..a transforming, surreal luminosity of vegetativeness.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, March 2012; most recently modified version published online June 2022).
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adj.n.a1398