vetch
Meaning
A climbing plant of the pea family, often with small blue or purple flowers, grown as a fodder or green manure crop.
Usage
Farmers often plant vetch to enrich the soil with nitrogen.
The purple flowers of the common vetch brightened the edge of the field.
This forage mix contains rye grass and hairy vetch.
Etymology
The word "vetch" traces its lineage back to the Latin "vicia," the name for this specific plant. This Latin term was adopted into Old French as "veche" or "vete," forms which Middle English then borrowed. The transition from the Old French "veche" to the Middle and Modern English "vetch" illustrates a common sound shift. There is no further productive morpheme segmentation within the English spelling; it functions as a single, unanalyzable lexical unit denoting the plant.
Analysis
The word is a simplex form. It entered English as a whole unit from Old French.