Etymology

pabulum

pa·bu·lum
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Today it means: Food or fodder, particularly that taken in by plants or animals. Full definition →

Latin pābulum ← Proto-Indo-European *peh₂-dʰlom
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The story

  1. Proto-Indo-European · derived from*peh₂-dʰlom
  2. Latin · borrowed frompābulum“food, nourishment; fodder or pasture for animals; nourishment for the mind, food for thought”
  3. English todaypabulum

Borrowed from Latin pābulum (“food, nourishment; fodder or pasture for animals; nourishment for the mind, food for thought”), from pā(scō) (“to nourish”) + -bulum (suffix denoting an instrument), or directly from Proto-Indo-European *peh₂-dʰlom (*peh₂- (“to protect, shepherd”) + *-dʰlom, variant of *-trom (suffix denoting a tool or instrument)).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.