Where Did the Word Vegan Come From?

Believe it or not, it’s vegetarian without the middle letters!

I love etymology, and I’m forever fascinated with the origin of words. So, of course, I had to check the word vegan.

“I have used the title ‘The Vegan News’. Should we adopt this, our diet will soon become known as a VEGAN diet, and we should aspire to the rank of VEGANS.” — Watson in the first edition of “The Vegan News”.

I will admit to being slightly disappointed with what I found. I was expecting some ancient roots and hidden meanings. But no, the word vegan is a neologism (well, relatively speaking, of course)!

It was coined in 1944 by Donald Watson on the foundation of The Vegan Society. A couple of friends first suggested the name AllVega, to reinforce the idea that no animal products were consumed by the group, and the title AllVegan for the society’s newsletter. Watson and his wife settled on the name The Vegan News, publishing the first edition in November 1944. The name stuck, and that’s still what we use today.

“The word ‘vegan’ was immediately accepted and became part of our language and is now in almost every world dictionary.” — Watson in an interview in 2002.

The term vegetarian, used as the base for vegan, is relatively recent as well, and it’s also connected to the foundation of the related society. The Vegetarian Society was founded in 1847, and the word vegetarian dates from a few years prior (1839), being a modification of the word vegetable. An earlier version of the word (dating from 1928) was anti-carnivorous. I’m glad it didn’t stick — I’m not sure how I feel about antous…

November is World Vegan Month!

Check out the post below to learn more about the celebration and find other posts related to Veganism.