Ingestor

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. An entity that takes in food or substances for digestion or assimilation
2. A being or mechanism that consumes materials for nutritional or functional purposes
3. An organism or device responsible for the intake of various inputs for processing or nourishment

Etymology: "Ingestor" is an agent noun built from "ingest" plus the suffix "-or," which English took from Latin "-or" (as in "actor" or "creditor") to name a person or thing that performs an action. The core verb, "ingest," comes from the Latin "ingerere," meaning "to carry or throw into," formed from "in-" ("into") and "gerere" ("to carry, bear"). That same "gerere" stands behind words like "gesture" and "register," which gives a surprising family resemblance: all of them involve carrying something somewhere. English has used "ingest" since the 1600s, but it was largely a learned, Latinate word for the physical act of taking food or medicine into the body, and it sat comfortably beside "eat" and "swallow" in more formal writing. The noun "ingestor" is a much later, more technical formation, and it is most often found in biology, medicine and toxicology, where it names any organism or device that takes material in. Because it is built by regular English rules rather than inherited from an older text, its history is essentially that of its parts.

Synonyms: consumer, eater