"Locavore" is Oxford Word-of-the-Year

[Laurence Horn]

At 5:47 PM +0000 11/15/07, ronbutters at aol.com wrote:
>Ichthyophagous people are also known as East Coast Vegetarians.
>

Then there's "pescavegetarians", which some of the ones I know
construe as "peskyvegetarians". (Again, we're talking "human choice"
options here, not natural dietary habits.)

LH

>-----Original Message-----
>From: "Dennis R. Preston" <preston at MSU.EDU>
>
>Date:         Thu, 15 Nov 2007 07:45:47
>To:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>Subject:      Re: [ADS-L] "Locavore" is Oxford Word-of-the-Year
>
>
>Verbivores:
>
>Is there any rhyme or reason to the -vore versus -phagous suffixation
>for apparently natural dietary habits? Ichthyophagous seems pretty
>common for fish-eaters but herbivore seems to dominate everywhere.
>(Oooops! herbiphagous is there is the zoological lit.)
>
>I find both omnivore and omniphagous, and even fruit-eating bats are
>both carpophagous and fructivores. Do I sense a preference for adj in
>the -phagous and nouns in the -vore? Carnivorous is common, but I'm a
>little iffy about herbivorous and especially fructivorous (including
>stress placement, if carnivorous provides the right analogy).
>
>I also assume all these terms are comic and/or derisive when applied
>to human choice diets, but I haven't checked the anthropological
>literature. When people occasionally ask if I am a vegetarian and I
>reply that I am an omnivore (I think I'll switch to omniphagous and
>see how many respectable places I get thrown out of), I get odd
>responses. Looks like a case of markedness to me.
>
>dInIs (the omniphage?)
>
>>---------------------- Information from the mail header
>>-----------------------
>>Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>>Poster:       Michael H Covarrubias <mcovarru at PURDUE.EDU>
>>Subject:      Re: "Locavore" is Oxford Word-of-the-Year
>>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>>herbivore already does the trick.
>>
>>Quoting Tom Zurinskas <truespel at HOTMAIL.COM>:
>>>
>>>   If there's carnivore and omnivore, then there should be, of course,
>>>   vegivore.
>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>   > Date: Wed, 14 Nov 2007 13:40:31 -0500
>>>   > Poster: Charles Doyle
>>>   > Subject: Re: "Locavore" is Oxford Word-of-the-Year
>>>   >
>>>
>>>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>>   >
>>>   > Carnivore: "one who vores carnally"?
>>>   >
>>>   > --Charlie
>>>   > _____________________________________________________________
>>>   >
>>>   >
>>>   > ---- Original message ----
>>>   >>Date: Wed, 14 Nov 2007 13:32:51 -0500
>>>   >>From: Wilson Gray
>>>   >>
>>>   >>Locavore: "one who vores locally"! Okay, now I get it. There
>>>are are some
>>>   cases in which it's necessary *not* to have had the benefit of a classical
>>>   education.
>>>   >>
>>>   >>-Wilson
>>>   >
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>>
>>
>>
>>~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>>
>>     English Language & Linguistics
>>     Purdue University
>>     mcovarru at purdue.edu
>>
>>     web.ics.purdue.edu/~mcovarru
>>    <http://wishydig.blogspot.com>
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>--
>It should be the chief aim of a university professor to exhibit
>himself [sic] in his own true character - that is, as an ignorant man
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>
>Dennis R. Preston
>University Distinguished Professor
>Department of English
>Morrill Hall 15-C
>Michigan State University
>East Lansing, MI 48824-1036 USA
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