lettuce
Plurallettuces (some meanings)
- 1The edible leaves of the salad plant, eaten as a vegetable and often mixed with other ingredients and dressing into a dish.
She tore the lettuce into pieces and tossed it with olive oil.
The salad was mostly lettuce, with a few slices of tomato on top.
Similargreens
Note
On the plate the word stops counting. You add lettuce to a sandwich, not a lettuce, and portions come as leaves or shreds. The stock pairing is with tomato, as in a ham sandwich with lettuce and tomato. When you mean whole heads in the garden or the shop, the countable plant sense takes over and the plural lettuces becomes natural again.
- 2An edible plant of the species Lactuca sativa and its close relatives, forming a head of green or purple leaves.
Lettuce grows quickly in cool weather and turns bitter when the season gets too warm.
Gardeners often grow lettuce alongside slower crops because it matures so fast.
Note
The plant's name carries its sap. Middle English letuse came, probably through the Old French plural laitues, from Latin lactūca, built on lac, "milk," for the milky fluid in its stalks. It displaced the native Old English lēahtric, and sleepwort remains a synonym. Counted, the word means whole plants or heads, as in three lettuces in a row. Uncounted, it means the crop in general.
- 3United States paper currency, especially cash in the form of dollar bills.
The rapper bragged about stacking lettuce after the sold-out show.
She counted out her lettuce and realized she was short on rent.
Similarcabbage, greenbacks
Note
Money slang built on color: US banknotes are green, and so is the salad leaf, which is most likely where the sense comes from. John Updike's Rabbit, Run (1960) has its hero steadying himself after payday by "fingering so much lettuce." It is American slang, in company with cabbage and greenbacks. It is also a mass noun: you can have a lot of lettuce, but never three lettuces.
- 4
- 5Cannabis prepared for use as a recreational drug; marijuana.
He rolled the lettuce into a joint and passed it around the circle.
The cops pulled them over and found a jar of lettuce in the trunk.
Similarweed, grass, pot, marijuana, herb
Note
Context does all the work here. In casual talk the same word can mean salad, cash or cannabis, so outside a group that already uses it, the drug meaning is easily missed. It is slang and a mass noun (some lettuce, a jar of lettuce). It suits loose, in-group conversation, not any setting where the drug would be named plainly.
- 6A strong yellow-green color, resembling that of fresh lettuce leaves; also called lettuce green.
The designer chose a vivid lettuce for the spring collection.
Walls painted in lettuce gave the room a fresh, springlike feel.
Similarchartreuse, lime
Practice
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Origin
From Middle English letuse, of uncertain precise origin but probably from the plural Old French laitues, from Latin lactūca ("lettuce"), from lac ("milk"), because of the milky fluid in the plant's stalks; it replaced Old English lēahtric. As slang for money, it likely comes from the green color of US banknotes.