vitaile

Middle English

FWOTD – 7 November 2018

Alternative forms

• fetayle, vetaille, vetel, victuayle, vitaill, vitaille, vitaylle, viteill, vitell, vittaille, vytayle

Etymology 1

From Old French vitaile, from Latin victuālia.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /viˈtɛi̯l(ə)/, /ˈvitəl(ə)/

Noun

vitaile (plural vitailes or vitaile)

1. (primarily as a plural) That which provides nutrition; food, nourishment.
   • 1387–1400, Geoffrey Chaucer, “The Prologues”, in The Canterbury Tales (in Middle English), [Westminster: William Caxton, published 1478], →OCLC; republished in [William Thynne], editor, The Workes of Geffray Chaucer Newlye Printed, […], [London]: […] [Richard Grafton for] Iohn Reynes […], 1542, →OCLC, “The Frere”, column 2, lines 246–248:

     It is not honeſt, it maye not auaunce / For to deale wyth ſuche porayle / But all wyth ryche and ſellers of vytayle

     It is not honest, it may not advance / To deal with such poor people / But all with rich, and sellers of food

2. A ration or rations, victuals; one's store of food for journeying.
   • 15th c., “Processus Noe cum filiis [Noah and the Ark]”, in Wakefield Mystery Plays; Re-edited in George England, Alfred W. Pollard, editors, The Towneley Plays (Early English Text Society Extra Series; LXXI), London: […] Oxford University Press, 1897, →OCLC, page 27, lines 154–155:

     ffor thay may the avayll / when al this thyng is wroght' / stuf thi ship with vitayll, / ffor hungre that ye perish noght

     For your own good after this thing [the Flood] is done, stuff your shop with provisions so as not to perish from hunger

3. Food yielded from agriculture.

Derived terms

• vitailen
• vitailler
• vitaillyng

Descendants

• English: victual, vittle
• Scots: victual
• → Irish: biotáille

Etymology 2

Borrowed from Middle French vitaillier.

Verb

vitaile

1. Alternative form of vitailen

Old French

Etymology

Latin victuālia, the nominative plural of victuālis, from victus, from the verb vīvō (“I live”).

Noun

vitaile oblique singular, f (oblique plural vitailes, nominative singular vitaile, nominative plural vitailes)

1. (chiefly in the plural) provisions; vittle; food
   • c. 1110,, Benedeit, Le Voyage de saint Brandan:

     Tant cum durat lur vitaile

     For as long as their provisions lasted

Descendants

• → Middle English: vitaile, fetayle, vetaille, vetel, victuayle, vitaill, vitaille, vitaylle, viteill, vitell, vittaille, vytayle
  • English: victual, vittle
  • Scots: victual
  • → Irish: biotáille