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The Collaborative International Dictionary
Esculent

Esculent \Es"cu*lent\, a. [L. esculentus, fr. escare to eat, fr. esca food, fr. edere to eat: cf. F. esculent. See Eat.] Suitable to be used by man for food; eatable; edible; as, esculent plants; esculent fish.

Esculent grain for food.
--Sir W. Jones.

Esculent swallow (Zo["o]l.), the swallow which makes the edible bird's-nest. See Edible bird's-nest, under Edible.

Esculent

Esculent \Es"cu*lent\, n. Anything that is fit for eating; that which may be safely eaten by man.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
esculent

1620s, from Latin esculentus "good to eat, eatable, fit to eat," from esca "food," from PIE *eds-qa- (cognates: Lithuanian eska "appetite"), from root *ed- "to eat" (see edible). As a noun from 1620s, "food, especially vegetables."

Wiktionary
esculent

a. edible. n. Something edible; a comestible.

Usage examples of "esculent".

But he most probably refers here to the Batatas, or sweet Potato, a Convolvulus, which was a popular esculent vegetable at that date, of tropical origin, and to which our Potato has since been thought to bear a resemblance.

The sad change I see in Miss Lusignan is partly due to the great bulk of unwholesome esculents she has been eating and drinking under the head of medicines.

As the esculents increased in number, it became necessary to enlarge the simple beds, which threatened to grow into regular fields and replace the meadows.

But there is not a shadow of evidence in favour of this view: to assert that we could not breed our cart and race-horses, long and short-horned cattle and poultry of various breeds, and esculent vegetables, for an almost infinite number of generations, would be opposed to all experience.

Meanwhile, maize and morning glories, tomatoes and cherry trees, every flower and Esculent known to Linna.