a. and sb. [ad. L. esculent-us, f. esca food.]
A. adj.
1. Suitable for food, eatable.
1626. Bacon, Sylva, § 630. But a Number of Herbs are not Esculent at all.
1756. C. Lucas, Ess. Waters, III. 238. And the gardens afford good supplies of the best esculent vegetables.
1813. Bingley, Anim. Biog. (ed. 4), III. 471. Esculent Snail.
1816. Kirby & Sp., Entomol., x. (1828), I. 310. The order Aptera does not much more abound in esculent insects than the Diptera.
1866. Rogers, Agric. & Prices, I. iv. 66. Onions and cabbage appear to have been the only esculent vegetables.
¶ confused use.
1813. Bingley, Anim. Biog. (ed. 4), II. 212. The Esculent Swallow. The nest of this bird is edible.
2. absol. quasi-sb.
1626. Bacon, Sylva (1631), § 474. In Plants, where the Root is the Esculent, as Radish, and Parsnips.
B. sb. Anything that is eatable, or fit for food; esp. vegetables.
1625. Massinger, New Way, IV. ii. A piece of Suffolk cheese, or gammon of bacon, Or any esculent, as the learned call it.
1725. Bradley, Fam. Dict., Esculents, by which is to be understood Plants for Food.
1754. Dodsley, Agric., ii. His various esculents, from glowing beds Give the fair promise of delicious feasts.
1863. Ball, in N. & Q., Ser. III. IV. 193. The 4th of August was the period when the juicy esculent could be first enjoyed.
1872. Yeats, Growth Comm., 25. The varieties of palm furnished … an esculent something like the cabbage.
