從 vegetable 來：菜本身，和菜的味道
這一支是把 vegetable 剪短，指的是桌上真正的菜，以及那股青味。
noun · A2
A vegetable. Veggie is the short, friendly everyday word for it, and it is used most of all in the plural, veggies.
蔬菜
核心畫面
Picture two long words being cut short in the same friendly way. Vegetable loses its tail, vegetarian loses its tail, and a soft -ie is stuck on what is left — and both of them land on exactly the same little word. That is why one spelling can hand you the food on the plate, the person who will not eat meat, the dish cooked without meat, and even a green taste in a glass of wine. Nothing is hidden in the word itself; the sentence around it always tells you which one arrived.
可以想成：兩個長字被用同樣隨性的方式剪短。vegetable 剪掉尾巴，vegetarian 也剪掉尾巴，剩下的再加…更多收起
可以想成：兩個長字被用同樣隨性的方式剪短。vegetable 剪掉尾巴，vegetarian 也剪掉尾巴，剩下的再加一個軟軟的 -ie——結果兩邊剛好撞成同一個小字。所以同一個拼法可以給你盤子裡的菜、不吃肉的那個人、沒有放肉的那道菜，甚至一杯酒裡的青味。字本身沒有藏線索，靠的是句子：會被切、被吃的是菜，會訂位、會舉手的是人，放在食物前面的是「素的」，配上 too 或 very 的則是在講味道。From the word’s history
Wiktionary records veggie as a clipping of vegetable and/or vegetarian plus -ie. The two possible sources are the whole story of this word: one short form doing the work of two long ones.
Wiktionary 記錄 veggie 是 vegetable 的縮寫，也可能來自 vegetarian 加 -ie。這兩條可能的來源，其實就是這個字的全部故事：一個短字同時扛下兩個長字的工作。英文裡 -ie、-y 常用來把長字變短、變親切，像 telly、hankie，veggie 是同一個習慣。
Wiktionary (kaikki extract, source_ref kaikki:3f6f69a190036ae4:854263274:3937): Clipping of vegetable and/or vegetarian + -ie.
Two branches
從 vegetarian 來：不吃肉的那一邊
這一支是把 vegetarian 剪短。它不是在指菜，而是在指一個選擇：不吃肉。這個選擇可以落在食物上，也可以落在人身上。
adjective · A2
Made with vegetables, beans, nuts and so on instead of meat or fish, or suitable for someone who does not eat meat: a veggie burger, a veggie option.
素食的