Mangels

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. Root vegetables similar to beets, grown primarily for animal fodder and as a food source, characterized by their large, bulbous shape and sweet taste
2. Edible plants cultivated for livestock feed and sometimes human consumption, noted for their thick, swollen roots and sugar content
3. Crops featuring sizable, tapering roots used as nutritious provisions for farm animals and occasionally processed for sugar extraction

Etymology: "Mangels" is the plural of "mangel," the short form of "mangelwurzel," a large root crop grown mainly as cattle feed. The noun "mangel" is the form the word takes in English as a shortening of that longer name, which itself came into English from German, where "Mangoldwurzel" was the name for the beet. The plural "mangels" simply refers to more than one of these roots, as a farmer would speak of a field of them. The word's history therefore lies in the German compound behind "mangel," rather than in the plural ending, which is a regular English addition.

Synonyms: mangel-wurzels, fodder beets