aliment

From French aliment, from Latin alimentum (“food”).

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈæ.lɪ.mənt/

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aliment (countable and uncountable, plural aliments)

1. (now rare) Food.
   • 1822, John Barclay, chapter I, in An Inquiry Into the Opinions, Ancient and Modern, Concerning Life and Organization‎^[1], Edinburgh, London: Bell & Bradfute; Waugh & Innes; G. & W. B. Whittaker, section I, page 1:

     In the living state, the body is observed to receive aliment; [...]

2. (figuratively) Nourishment, sustenance.
   • 1597, Francis Bacon, “Of the Coulers of Good and Evill. A Fragment.”, in James Spedding, Robert Leslie Ellis, and Douglas Denon Heath, editors, The Works of Francis Bacon, […], volume VII, London: Longman, Green, and Co.;  […], published 1859, →OCLC, pages 90–91:

     As when Demosthenes reprehended the people for hearkening to the conditions offered by King Philip, being not honourable nor equal, he saith they were but aliments of their sloth and weakness, which if they were taken away, necessity would teach them stronger resolutions.

   • 1978, Lawrence Durrell, Livia (Avignon Quintet), Faber & Faber, published 1992, page 356:

     All this monotony might be a good aliment for a poet but what if one had no gifts?

3. (Scotland) An allowance for maintenance; alimony.

aliment (third-person singular simple present aliments, present participle alimenting, simple past and past participle alimented)

1. (obsolete) To feed, nourish.
2. To sustain, support.
   • 2002, Colin Jones, The Great Nation, Penguin, published 2003, page 434:

     Yet there would also be many – and not simply the powerful and ultra-privileged – who lost out, and whose discontent operated as a kind of political yeast, alimenting ‘unpatriotic’ thoughts and acts.

• alimentary
• alimentary canal
• alimony
• alimental
• alimentous

• ailment, maltine, netmail

Borrowed from Latin alimentum.

• IPA^(key): (Central) [ə.liˈmen]
• IPA^(key): (Balearic) [ə.liˈment]
• IPA^(key): (Valencia) [a.liˈment]

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aliment m (plural aliments)

1. (piece of) food

• alimentar

• menjar

• “aliment” in Diccionari de la llengua catalana, segona edició, Institut d’Estudis Catalans.
• “aliment”, in Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana, 2024
• “aliment” in Diccionari normatiu valencià, Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua.
• “aliment” in Diccionari català-valencià-balear, Antoni Maria Alcover and Francesc de Borja Moll, 1962.

From Latin alimentum.

• IPA^(key): /a.li.mɑ̃/

• Audio:

  (file)

aliment m (plural aliments)

1. food
   • 1755, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Discours sur l’origine et les fondements de l’inégalité parmi les hommes:

     C’est ainsi qu’un pigeon mourrait de faim près d’un bassin rempli des meilleures viandes, et un chat sur des tas de fruits, ou de grain, quoique l’un et l’autre pût très bien se nourrir de l’aliment qu’il dédaigne, s’il s’était avisé d’en essayer.

     Thus a pigeon would be starved to death by the side of a dish of the choicest meats, and a cat on a heap of fruit or grain; though it is certain that either might find nourishment in the foods which it thus rejects with disdain, did it think of trying them.

• alimentaire
• alimentation
• alimenter

• → Romanian: aliment

• “aliment”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

• mailent

aliment m (plural alimens)

1. item of food

From Latin alimentum.

• Audio:

  (file)

aliment m (plural aliments)

1. item of food

• alimentar
• alimentari

Borrowed from French aliment, from Latin alimentum.

• IPA^(key): /a.liˈment/

aliment n (plural alimente)

1. food (any substance consumed by living organisms to sustain life)

   Synonym: mâncare