Olericulturists

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. Individuals engaged in the cultivation of vegetables and edible plants
2. specialists focused on the production and farming methods of plant crops for human consumption
3. experts dedicated to the science and art of growing sustainable food plants in various agricultural settings

Etymology: Olericulture is a compound built from Latin "olerī," the genitive-style base of "olus" (also "holus"), meaning vegetables or pot-herbs, and "cultūra," the Latin word for cultivation, which came into English through Middle French "culture." Its root sense is the tending of the soil, so the vegetable grower and the farmer share an ancestor in the same Latin verb "colō," meaning to till or inhabit. The word "olericulturist" adds the suffix "-ist," which English borrowed through Old French "-iste" from Latin "-ista" and Greek "-ιστής" (-istḗs), a marker for a person who practises or specialises in something. Put together, an olericulturist is someone who practises the cultivation of vegetables, a deliberately technical coinage formed from the older word "olericulture" rather than an ancient term.