Herbages

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. Green plants or foliage used as food for animals ; cultivated plants valued for culinary or medicinal purposes ; fresh plant material suitable for grazing or harvesting
2. Vegetative matter such as grasses and leafy plants consumed by livestock ; plants grown primarily for seasoning or healing attributes ; lush greenery harvested for animal feed or human use
3. Edible leafy vegetation serving as animal fodder ; types of plants utilized in cooking or natural remedies ; plant-based material gathered for consumption by herbivores or humans

Etymology: "Herbages" is simply the plural of "herbage," so it refers to several kinds of herbage at once: grass and leafy growth eaten by livestock, or plants grown for seasoning or medicine. The singular "herbage" came into Middle English from Old French "erbage," which descended from Early Medieval Latin "herbāticum," a noun built on the Latin "herba," meaning "grass." The Latin root is also the source of the English "herb," though "herbage" took a different route, which is why the two words look so alike yet cover slightly different ground. The ending "-age" is a French-derived suffix that turns a noun into a collective, pointing to a mass or supply of the thing named. So "herbage" denotes the whole body of green growth rather than any single plant, which explains why the plural form is less common than the singular.

Synonyms: herbs, plants, vegetation, greens