anthropophagi

English

Etymology

The plural of (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Latin anthropophagus, from (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Ancient Greek ἀνθρωποφάγος (anthrōpophágos, “man-eating”), English since 1581 (as an ethnonym). Use of the singular anthropophagus is rare.

Noun

anthropophagi

1. 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.

Alternative forms

• capitalized Anthropophagi, as the name of a supposed people of man-eaters in ancient ethnography.

Derived terms

• anthropophagous (adjective)

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Latin

Noun

(deprecated template usage) anthrōpophagī

1. nominative plural of anthrōpophagus
2. genitive singular of anthrōpophagus
3. vocative plural of anthrōpophagus

References

• “anthropophagi”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898), Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers