Kreophagy

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. The act of consuming the flesh of dead animals refers to the practice of eating carrion
2. Feeding on the remains of deceased organisms is described as scavenging for flesh
3. The behavior of consuming the flesh of animals after their death

Etymology: Kreophagy is built from two Greek pieces. The first, "kréas", means "flesh" or "meat", and the second, "-phagy", comes from "phagein", "to eat", the same root behind words like "phagocyte" and "anthropophagy". Put together, the word describes eating flesh, and in this noun it is specifically the eating of dead animals, or carrion. The word is a modern formation. Its parts are ancient Greek, but the compound itself was assembled in later English, in the same way scientists and writers have long built new terms from classical pieces when no existing word quite fit. Ancient Greeks did not use it, so it is best read as a deliberate coinage rather than an inherited term.