provender means food, especially for livestock. It carries an Arena rating of 1591, earned across 9 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, provender ranks #2,768 of 17,126 for Most Satisfying to Say, #3,085 of 17,143 for Best Fossil-Poetry Words, #3,298 of 17,132 for Most Betrayed by Its Sound, #4,062 of 17,127 for Words That Escaped Their Books.
provender is pronounced /ˈpɹɒvɪndə/.
Why “provender” is a great word
Dry food for domestic livestock; fodder. From Middle English provendre, from Old French provendre, variant of provende ('allowance, provision'), from Late Latin praebenda ('a payment, allowance'), from Latin praebēre ('to offer, furnish'). Doublet of prebend. Unlike 'fodder,' which evokes the coarse rusticity of hay and straw for the beast of burden, or 'victuals,' which speaks squarely of human sustenance, provender is the general, utilitarian store—the grain in the bin, the oats in the sack, the dusty maize poured into a trough. It is the humble fuel of a world of labor, a quiet, cyclical offering for the maintenance of life.
Etymology
From Middle English provendre, from Old French provendre, variant of provende (“allowance, provision”), from Late Latin praebenda (“a payment, in Medieval Latin also an allowance of food and drink, pittance, also a prebend”). Doublet of prebend.
noun
- Food, especially for livestock.
verb
- To feed.e.g.“One night, after several days of continuous plowing, and after the ox and mule had been stabled and provendered for the night, the ox said to the mule […]” — 1911, International Horseshoers' Monthly Magazine, volume 12, page 35:
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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