pabulum
Use Pabulum in a sentence
yə noun
1.
something that nourishes an animal or vegetable organism; food; nutriment.
2.
material for intellectual nourishment.
3.
Origin:
1670–80; < Latin pābulum food, nourishment, equivalent to pā(scere) to feed (akin to food) + -bulum noun suffix of instrument
1670–80; < Latin pābulum food, nourishment, equivalent to pā(scere) to feed (akin to food) + -bulum noun suffix of instrument
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2013.
Cite This Source
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2013.
Cite This Source
|
Link To pabulum
Collins
World English Dictionary
pabulum (ˈpæbjʊləm) ![[Click for IPA pronunciation guide]](http://static.sfdict.com/dictstatic/g/d/dictionary_questionbutton_default.gif) | |
| —n | |
| 1. | food |
| 2. | food for thought, esp when bland or dull |
| [C17: from Latin, from pascere to feed] | |
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
Cite This Source
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
Cite This Source
00:10
Pabulum
is always a great word to know.
So is bezoar. Does it mean:
| a printed punctuation mark (‽), available only in some typefaces, designed to combine the question mark (?) and the exclamation point (!), indicating a mixture of query and interjection, as after a rhetorical question. |
| a calculus or concretion found in the stomach or intestines of certain animals, esp. ruminants, formerly reputed to be an effective remedy for poison. |
Etymonline
Word Origin & History
pabulum
"food," 1678, from L. pabulum "fodder, food," from PIE base *pa- "to protect, feed" (see food) + instrumentive suffix *-dhlom. Pablum (1932), derived from this, is a trademark (Mead Johnson & Co.) for a soft, bland cereal used as a food for weak and invalid people, hence fig.
use (attested from 1970, first by U.S. Vice President Spiro Agnew) in ref. to "mushy" political prose.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
Cite This Source
Cite This Source
Example sentences
He allowed himself to be steered into safe song choices and pabulum movies.
The rise will be faster than the ability to cope, because the coping is a function of the pabulum predictions.
The organic matter stirred up from the benthic zone temporarily furnishes a rich and varied pabulum.
The resultant interview, not surprisingly, had been a steady stream of pabulum and clichés.
Related Searches
Nearby Words
Copyright © 2013 Dictionary.com, LLC. All rights reserved.
