pablum

Meanings

1. Alternative letter-case form of Pablum (“a type of cereal for infants made from cornmeal, oat, and wheat”).
2. Mushy, easily digested food; pap; (countable) a specific type of such food.
3. Something overly bland or simplistic, especially speech or writing.

1. A type of cereal for infants made from cornmeal, oat, and wheat.

Etymology

A variant of Pablum, the name of a food supplement for malnourished infants developed in 1931 by the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, and Mead Johnson & Company, probably a shortening of Latin pābulum (“fodder for animals; food, nourishment”), from pā(scō) (“to feed, nourish; to drive to pasture; to support; to tend”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *peh₂- (“to protect, ward; to shepherd”)) + -bulum (suffix denoting an instrument) (from Proto-Indo-European *-dʰlom (a variant of *-trom (suffix denoting an instrument or tool))), or directly from Proto-Indo-European *peh₂-dʰlom (from *peh₂- + *-dʰlom). The name was trademarked in the United States in 1932.