Dictionary

Pablum en · PROPN

Pronunciation

• (General-American) audio
• /ˈpæbləm/ (Received-Pronunciation)
• /ˈpæbl(ə)m/ (General-American)
• (Southern-England) audio

Etymology

The name of a food supplement for malnourished infants developed in 1931 by the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, and Mead Johnson & Company, probably a shortening of Latin pābulum (“fodder for animals; food, nourishment”), from pā(scō) (“to feed, nourish; to drive to pasture; to support; to tend”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *peh₂- (“to protect, ward; to shepherd”)) + -bulum (suffix denoting an instrument) (from Proto-Indo-European *-dʰlom (a variant of *-trom (suffix denoting an instrument or tool))), or directly from Proto-Indo-European *peh₂-dʰlom (from *peh₂- + *-dʰlom). The name was trademarked in the United States in 1932.

Meanings

1. (US, uncountable) A type of cereal for infants made from cornmeal, oat, and wheat.
   • Now your baby is even luckier! He'll enjoy new flavor variety with four Pablum cereals— […] They're all equally good for Baby—all based on the original Pablum formula. […] Remember—Pablum is the world's first precooked vitamin and mineral enriched cereal, and doctors have prescribed it for almost twenty years. 1951 July 23, “Now Watch Baby’s Progress on All Four! [advertisement]”, in Henry R[obinson] Luce, editor, Life, volume 31, number 4, Chicago, Ill.; New York, N.Y.: Time Inc., →ISSN, →OCLC, page 2:

Forms