vegetarian

Etymology

From vegetable + -arian; popularized following 1847 foundation of British Vegetarian Society.

noun

1. A person who does not eat animal flesh, or, in some cases, use any animal products.
   The sight and smell of raw meat are especially odious to me, and I have often thought that if I had had to be my own cook, I should inevitably become a vegetarian, probably, indeed, return entirely to my green and salad days. 1839, Fanny Kemble, Journal of a Residence on a Georgian Plantation in 1838-1839, New York: Harper and Brothers, published 1863, pp. 197-198
   Vegetarian Society […] A society […] formed at Manchester in 1847, to promote the use of cereals, pulse, and fruit, as articles of diet; and to induce habits of abstinence from fish, flesh, and fowl, as food. 1897, Robert Hunter, Charles Morris, Universal Dictionary of the English Language, volume 4, page 5045
   vegetarian […] One who abstains from animal food, living exclusively on vegetables, milk, eggs, and the like. The more strict vegetarians eat vegetables and farinaceous food only, abstaining from eggs, butter, milk, and in some cases, honey. 1897, Robert Hunter, Charles Morris, Universal Dictionary of the English Language, volume 4, page 5045
   I went in for all books available on vegetarianism and read them. One of these, Howard Williams' The Ethics of Diet, was a 'biographical history of the literature of humane dietetics from the earliest period to the present day'. It tried to make out, that all philosophers and prophets from Pythagoras and Jesus down to those of the present age were vegetarians. 1925-29, Mahadev Desai (translator), M.K. Gandhi, The Story of My Experiments with Truth, Part I, chapter xv
2. An animal that eats only plants; a herbivore.

adj

1. Of or relating to the type of diet eaten by vegetarians (in all senses).
   Must we not put to death blackbirds and thrushes because they feed on worms, or (if capital punishment offends our humanitarianism) starve them slowly by permanent captivity and vegetarian diet? 1893, David George Ritchie, Natural Rights: A Criticism of Some Political and Ethical Conceptions
2. Without meat.
3. Of a product normally made with meat, having non-meat substitutes in place of meat.
   Is there such a thing as a good tasting vegetarian hot dog? Cuz every one I've tried tasted like smelted tire. 2008, Wil Forbis, Acid Logic: A Decade of Humorous Writing on Pop Culture, Trash Cinema, and Rebel Music, page 208
4. That does not eat meat.
   I have a vegetarian brother