The word "vittles" is a phonetic respelling of the older English term "victuals," which itself entered Middle English from Anglo-French vitaille. This traces back to Late Latin victualia, meaning "provisions," a neuter plural derived from Latin victus, meaning "nourishment" or "way of living." The core Latin root is vivere, "to live," from the Proto-Indo-European root gʷei̯h₃-, meaning "to live." The modern spelling "vittles" reflects a folk etymology that phonetically captures the common pronunciation after the loss of the 'c' sound, cementing its status as a colloquial, often rustic, synonym for food.

This word is a simplex form resulting from a long phonetic evolution from the original Latin root. It is not productively segmented in modern English.