anthropophagi
English
Etymology
The plural of Latin anthropophagus, from Ancient Greek ἀνθρωποφάγος (anthrōpophágos, “man-eating”), English since 1581 (as an ethnonym). Use of the singular anthropophagus is rare.
Noun
anthropophagi
- plural of anthropophagus
- 1581, B. Gilpin, A godly sermon preached in the court at Greenwich
- Histories make mention of a people called Anthropophagi, eaters of men.
- 1837, J. D. Lang, An historical and statistical account of New South Wales I. 386
- A poor New Zealander, whose forefathers had from time immemorial been anthropophagi.
- c. 1603–1604 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Othello, the Moore of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, (please specify the scene number in lowercase Roman numerals)]:
- It was my hint to speak,—such was the process;
- And of the Cannibals that each other eat,
- The Anthropophagi, and men whose heads
- Do grow beneath their shoulders.
- 1581, B. Gilpin, A godly sermon preached in the court at Greenwich
Alternative forms
- capitalized Anthropophagi, as the name of a supposed people of man-eaters in ancient ethnography.
Derived terms
- anthropophagous (adjective)
Latin
Noun
(deprecated template usage) anthrōpophagī
- inflection of anthrōpophagus:
References
- “anthropophagi”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898), Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers