Sanguivory

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. The practice or behavior of feeding on blood from other creatures, typically as a natural dietary habit seen in certain animals or organisms
2. A dietary pattern characterized by the consumption of blood as the primary or exclusive source of nourishment, commonly observed in some species
3. The act or tendency of subsisting on blood, often describing animals whose main nutritional intake involves draining blood from hosts or prey

Etymology: "Sanguivory" is a back-formation: English speakers first had "sanguivorous" (blood-eating, from Latin "sanguis" meaning blood, combined with "-vorous" from Latin "vorare," to devour) and the agent noun "sanguivore," and the noun "sanguivory" was then created by stripping off the adjectival or agent ending and adding "-y," the suffix that turns a word into a noun of practice or condition, as in "gluttony" or "ferocity." The sequence matters because it runs opposite to the usual direction of word formation. Most nouns give rise to adjectives, but here the noun was carved out of a pair of words that already existed, so the form seems to have been produced by analogy rather than inherited or borrowed. The "-vore" and "-vorous" pieces come straight from Latin, and the "sangui-" part is the same Latin stem found in "sanguine" and "exsanguinate," which is why the words feel medical or literary.

Synonyms: hematophagy, blood feeding