Anthropophagous

Part of speech: adjective

Pronunciation: /ˌæn.θɹəˈpɒ.fə.ɡəs/

Definitions

1. Describing a dietary practice that involves the consumption of human flesh, this term also signifies behavior where individuals of the same species partake in cannibalism and reflects a nature that engages in such actions
2. Characterized by the habit of consuming human meat as food
3. Pertaining to creatures that eat the flesh of human beings

Etymology: Ancient Greek speakers had a blunt word for the act: "anthrōpophagos" was built from "anthrōpos," meaning "human being," and the verb "ephagon," "I ate." Its Greek sense was simply "man-eating," and it was applied to peoples or creatures believed to consume human flesh, a notion that travelled far in classical writing about distant and unfamiliar cultures. English took the idea rather than the Greek word directly. The modern form is built from "anthropo-," the combining form of "anthrōpos," plus the suffix "-phagous," from Greek "-phagos," meaning "eating" or "eater," which came into Latin as "-phagus." The result is a learned compound of the kind English scholars assembled from classical parts, and it reads plainly: the adjective describes something that eats humans. The word therefore carries its original structure on its face. Its two parts remain transparent, so a reader who knows "anthropology" or "philosophy" can usually work out its sense without a dictionary.

Synonyms: cannibalistic