English

Noun

pabulum ‎(plural pabula or pabulums)

1. Food or fodder, particularly that taken in by plants or animals.
2. Material that feeds a fire.
3. (figuratively) Food for thought.
4. Bland intellectual fare; an undemanding diet of words.
   • 1907, Robert W[illiam] Chambers, “chapter VIII”, in The Younger Set (Project Gutenberg; EBook #14852), New York, N.Y.: A. L. Burt Company, published 1 February 2005 (Project Gutenberg version), OCLC 4241346:

     At her invitation he outlined for her the succeeding chapters with terse military accuracy ; and what she liked best and best understood was avoidance of that false modesty which condescends, turning technicality into pabulum.

See also

• pablum
• pabulary

Latin

Etymology

From pā(scō) ‎(“I nourish”) +‎ -bulum, or directly from Proto-Indo-European *peh₂-dʰlom (*peh₂- + *-dʰlom).

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /ˈpaː.bu.lum/, [ˈpaː.bʊ.ɫũ]

Noun

pābulum n ‎(genitive pābulī); second declension

1. food, nourishment, sustenance
   • c. 37 BCE – 30 BCE, Virgil, Georgicon 4.265

     […] ultro / hortantem et fessas ad pabula nota vocantem

     […] freely / calling them and exhorting the weary insects to eat their familiar food.

2. (of animals) fodder, pasture
3. (figuratively) nourishment for the mind, food for thought

Inflection

Second declension.

Synonyms

• (food, nourishment): alimentum, alimōnia, alimōnium

Derived terms

• pābulāris
• pābulārius
• pābulor
• pābulōsus

Related terms

• pābulātiō
• pābulātor
• pābulātōrius

Descendants

• Catalan: pábulo
• English: pablum, pabulum
• Portuguese: pábulo
• Romanian: plaur
• Spanish: pábulo

References

• pabulum in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• pabulum in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• PABULUM in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition, 1883–1887)
• Félix Gaffiot (1934), “pabulum”, in Dictionnaire Illustré Latin-Français, Paris: Hachette.