Difference between VERDURAS and VEGETALES?
I can't seem to find the difference between these two words. Can you help clarify'
7 Answers
Quentin said:
In the US we refer to leafy, green colored vegetables as . It distinguishes lettuce, cabbage, spinach, brussel sprouts, etc. from other vegetables. Looking at the first and second definition used in the RAE this may be similar in Spanish.
"Verdura" comes from "verde", but the first meaning in the RAE is not necessarily related to plants, but to anything green. "Verduras" are certain edible green plants that are grown for human consumption. "Vegetales" refers to ANY kind of plant (=plants), as opposed to animals or rocks. In Mexico and Puerto Rico they use "vegetales" ALSO like in English (at schools they learn that all plants are called "vetetales"), but I don't know whether this is due to their proximity to the USA.
I asked a friend from Peru to define these two words. He said vegetales is vegetation. So, there is animales and vegetales. Verdurus is the word they use for vegetables. At their local supermercado, you would find the "frutus y verdurus" section.
Incidentally, he also said he has not met anyone who uses the word legumbre for vegetable. It would be translated as vegetable but it was not common.
HI JIm, I think the main difference is regional. In Spain we mostly use "verdura" in other countries vegetales.
lazarus1907 said:
"Verdura" comes from "verde", but the first meaning in the RAE is not necessarily related to plants, but to anything green. "Verduras" are certain edible green plants that are grown for human consumption. "Vegetales" refers to ANY kind of plant (=plants), as opposed to animals or rocks. In Mexico and Puerto Rico they use "vegetales" ALSO like in English (at schools they learn that all plants are called "vetetales"), but I don't know whether this is due to their proximity to the USA.
In English we basically have two meanings that we assign to "vegetables":
1) As in the guessing game "Animal, vegetable, or mineral'" (which corresponds to your "vegetales").
2) (more commonly) As used by, say, parents to their children, "Eat your vegetables!" or the nutritionist's injunction to "Eat more fruits and vegetables!". In this case, they needn't be green vegetables (i.e. we would include corn, cauliflower, squash and even potatoes [tubers]).
Before supermarkets became ubiquitous, it was possible to go to the "green grocer" (perhaps, after going to the butcher (for meat), or the fish market (for almost anything that comes from the sea) and the baker (for bread-stuffs). The green grocer could provide anything mentioned in #2 vide supra (especially, it need have been green).
So how does Spanish (especially in, say, Sevilla) deal with this spectrum of terminology'
In the US we refer to leafy, green colored vegetables as . It distinguishes lettuce, cabbage, spinach, brussel sprouts, etc. from other vegetables. Looking at the first and second definition used in the RAE this may be similar in Spanish.
verdura.
f. Color verde, verdor.
f. Hortaliza, especialmente la de hojas verdes.
f. Follaje que se pinta en lienzos y tapicerías.
f. obscenidad.
Vegetables are vegetables in which the edible part are green plant organs, as may be the stems, leaves, etc. and form part of the human diet. It is called vegetable (Latin legumen) to a type of nut, also commonly called pod or capital. Also get the name the edible seeds that grow and mature within the fruit and plants that produce them.
Legumes are a very homogeneous food group, consisting of nuts legumes, In scientific language the term has lost utility plant up to a point where the only possible definition is: any plant is called the body that have been traditionally studied by botanists.
The division by Aristotle of nature, still survives in the modern age. He distinguished three kinds of beings and met three kingdoms:
Minerals, which grow but do not live and feel Plants that grow and live but do not feel, and Animals grow, live and feel. The Royal Spanish Academy retains archaic definition of "plant": "Being organic growing and living, but no change of place for volunteer work." By application of a concept like this, Carl Linnaeus included corals in the kingdom Vegetabilia.
Vegetables are a set of generally cultivated plants in gardens or irrigation, which are consumed as food, either raw or prepared culinary.
The term includes vegetable vegetables and green vegetables such as beans and peas. Excluding vegetables to fruits and cereals.
However, this distinction is rather arbitrary and not based on any basis botanist, for example, tomatoes and peppers are considered vegetables, no fruit, although the fruit is edible.
Hi Jim.
For what its worth and for what i know LEGUMBRES are vegetables in the shops
and verduras are cooked vegetables.
P.S do`nt quote me without checking.
