English 'nutrition' derives from Late Latin 'nūtrītiō' (a nourishing), from 'nūtrīre' (to suckle, to nourish), from PIE *(s)neh₂- (to flow) — linking nourishment to the flowing of mother's milk and connecting 'nutrition' etymologically to 'nurse,' 'nourish,' and 'nurture.'
The process of providing or obtaining food necessary for health and growth; the branch of science studying nutrients and their effects.
From Late Latin nūtrītiōnem (nominative nūtrītiō, a nourishing, a feeding), from Latin nūtrīre (to nourish, to suckle, to nurse, to feed, to sustain). The PIE root is *(s)neh₂- (to flow, to swim, sometimes *snā-), which carries the sense of fluid motion. The connection between flowing and nourishing likely reflects the primal association of mother's milk — the first nourishment — with flowing liquid: to feed an infant is to let sustenance flow to them. Latin nūtrīre produced
English 'nurse,' 'nourish,' 'nurture,' and 'nutrition' all descend from the same Latin verb 'nūtrīre' (to suckle, to nourish). The word 'nurse' originally meant 'wet-nurse' — a woman who suckles another's child — and only later generalized to mean any caregiver for the sick. The medical profession of nursing is etymologically rooted in breastfeeding.