more on Vegetarian history

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The following response from another member of the VegSoc (UK) e-group

confirms that the word was used as early as 1839.

Patricia

 

The Oxford English Dictionary says:

 

" vegetarian, n. and a. "

 

A. n.

 

1. a. One who lives wholly or principally upon vegetable foods; a

person who on principle abstains from any form of animal food, or at

least such as is obtained by the direct destruction of life.

1839 F. A. KEMBLE Jrnl. Residence on Georgian Plantation (1863) 251 If I

had had to be my own cook, I should inevitably become a vegetarian. 1842

Healthian Apr. 34 To tell a healthy vegetarian that his diet is very

uncongenial with the wants of his nature. 1854 H. MILLER Sch. & Schm.

(1858) 332 A man can scarce become a vegetarian even without also

becoming in some measure intolerant of the still large..class that eat

beef with their greens, and herrings with their potatoes. 1885 SALMON

Introd. N.T. xi. 241 Even those who used animal food themselves came to

think of the vegetarian as one who lived a higher life.

 

b. transf. Of animals, etc.

1854 Poultry Chron. I. 307 For though ours are not vegetarians, every

chicken we have is a stanch teetotaler! 1861 P. P. CARPENTER in Rep.

Smithsonian Instit. 1860, 194 It is almost certain that some tribes [of

Gasteropods] which have a permanently elongated muzzle are not

vegetarians.

 

2. A member of a fanatical Chinese sect. Also attrib.

1895 Tablet 10 Aug. 208 Some 80 men belonging to a sect known as

Vegetarians stormed the station..at night. 1896 Mission. Herald (Boston)

July 279 A large portion of the vegetarians were unwilling to even

plunder the missionaries. Ibid., The vegetarian leaders imagined that

the missionaries were at the bottom of this activity against themselves.

 

B. adj.

 

1. Of or pertaining to vegetarians or vegetarianism; practising or

advocating vegetarianism.

In this group possibly attrib. uses of the n.

1849 Vegetarian Messenger Introd. 1 Condensed accounts of meetings and

the transactions of the Vegetarian Society. 1860 [JOHN SMITH] (title),

The Principles and Practice of Vegetarian Cookery. 1890 J. KNIGHT

Vegetarianism in Practice 11 The moral aspects of the Vegetarian

practice. Ibid. 12 The Vegetarian system affords such articles as will

give all requisite nourishment.

 

2. Of animals: Living on vegetables.

1856 T. R. JONES Aquarian Nat. 342 Mr. Darwin gives an interesting

account of a crab..which lives on cocoa~nuts... This vegetarian crab

[etc.]. 1869 R. TRIMEN in Noble The Cape & its People 100 An

order..composed almost wholly of vegetarian insects.

 

3. Consisting of vegetables or plants.

1868 R. OWEN Anat. Vertebrates III. 293 The diprotodont [type of

dentition] obtains in the majority of the Australasian marsupials, and

is associated usually with vegetarian or promiscuous diet. 1911 SWANTON

Ind. Tribes Lower Mississ. (Bureau Amer. Ethnol.) 317 The diet of the

Tunica was more vegetarian than that of American tribes generally.

 

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