Today's Word "Comestible"
Published in Vocabulary
comestible \keh-MES-teh-bl\ (adjective) - Edible, esculent, fit to be eaten.
"The table was set beautifully but the fried squash was the only comestible dish served."
From Late Latin "comestibilis," an adjective derived from "comestus," the past participle of comedere "to eat up," comprising an intensifier prefix, com- + edere "to eat." The root of "edere," ed- is the same one that became English "eat," German "essen," and Russian est', all meaning the same. Perhaps the most interesting relative in English is "fret," originating in Proto-Germanic as *fra-etan "eat up" from "fra," the ancestor of "for" + the ancestor of "eat." As the spelling slowly gravitated toward "fret," the meaning went from "eat up" to "eat away, gnaw," thence to "chafe, vex, irritate." A switch of transitivity gives us fret "to be vexed, to worry."
Comments