Flexitarian?

[Laurence Horn]

At 1:16 AM -0500 3/19/04, C Muir wrote:
>read today that "flexitarian" was voted most useful word for 2003.
>however, to describe flexible vegetarians, the word does not make
>etymological sense. That is, "flexi" and "tarian" simply mean
>flexible people. And if that is not the case, then we might allow:
>
>Unitarian = one on a strict, single food diet (especially when sick)
>Humanitarian = one on a human diet (a cannibal?)
>
>I think Vegeflex is a better word.
>
>CM
>
Too late; "flexitarian" is already pretty established, according to
the student data I collected last fall.  And as far as not making
etymological sense, it's perfectly consistent with standard
clip-blending procedure; check out "cheeseburger", "homophobia",
"chocoholic", etc. etc.   "-tarian" doesn't mean 'people' here, it
means 'vegetarian', just like "burger", "homo", and "(o)holic" mean
'hamburger', 'homosexual', and 'addicted to' respectively within this
blending process.

Larry Horn