olericulture

noun

ol·​eri·​cul·​ture ˈä-lə-rə-ˌkəl-chər 

ō-ˈler-ə-

: a branch of horticulture that deals with the production, storage, processing, and marketing of vegetables

Word History

Etymology

Latin holer-, oler-, stem of holus, olus "vegetables, potherbs" + English -iculture (as in horticulture); holer-, holus, going back to Indo-European *ǵ^hel-es-, *ǵ^hel-os "green things," collective derivative from a base *ǵ^hel- "yellow, green" seen also in Latin helvus "dull yellow, dun" — more at yellow entry 1

Note: The term was apparently introduced by the American botanist Edward Lewis Sturtevant (1842-98) in a paper entitled "Horticultural Botany" presented to the Western New York Horticultural Society (Proceedings of the Thirtieth Annual Meeting, "held at Rochester, Wednesday and Thursday, Jan. 28 and 29, 1885" [Rochester, 1885]), p. 25: "… we have the word 'agriculture' to express the cultivation of fields or field-culture; 'horticulture' the cultivation of the garden, or garden culture. I suggest in addition pomiculture, or fruit-culture, and olericulture, or vegetable culture."

First Known Use

1886, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for olericulture

• arboriculture
• agriculture
• apiculture
• aquaculture
• counterculture
• floriculture
• horticulture
• mariculture
• monoculture
• sericulture
• silviculture
• viticulture