Nomming

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. Eating greedily or with noisy enthusiasm, often said of a person or animal tucking into food
2. Chewing food with relish and audible appetite, a playful slang way of describing eager eating
3. Consuming something hungrily and with obvious pleasure, typically in a casual or humorous way

Etymology: The verb "nomming" is simply the "-ing" form of "nom", a word that began as the sound of chewing. Its ancestors were onomatopoeic noises for eating, and the form "num num" was used for the sound of crunching or munching long before the internet got hold of it. The surprising part is how the spelling changed: the catchphrase of Cookie Monster on Sesame Street, sung as he devoured cookies in "C Is For Cookie" (1971), was for years written with a "u", and it was only by 2013 that "nom" became the standard form. The modern life of the word began in the early 2000s. The phrase "om nom nom" is attested in 2004, and it spread through internet use from around 2007, reaching second place in the American Dialect Society's "Word of the Year" for 2010. What began as a children's television noise became a playful way of typing eagerness for food, and the spelling "nom" then stuck.

Synonyms: eat, consume, devour, munch, chew