anthropophagy

[Laurence Horn]

On Feb 9, 2012, at 12:40 PM, Arnold Zwicky wrote:

> On Feb 9, 2012, at 9:19 AM, Larry Horn wrote:
>
>> On Feb 9, 2012, at 11:39 AM, David A. Daniel wrote:
>>
>>> Does OED (to which I have no access) have any definitions for this other
>>> than of the eating human flesh variety? Brazilians, and those who write about Brazil (in English, mind you) seem to think it has to do with absorbing things (such as music and art) from other
>>> cultures. Yes? No?
>>>
>>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>> Nothing there yet for a metaphorical use,  Just:
>> The eating of men, cannibalism.
>>
>> Probably not worked on lately, since it's illustrated with just three cites ranging from 1638 to 1882 and since that first definiens would seem to exclude the eating of women (gynophagy?), which the etymology would contradict.
>
> (Larry knows that the "men" here is the old use for 'human being' (anthropophagy, not andropophagy).)

Guilty as charged, but I'd prefer "androphagy" myself for the latter custom.
>
> but i wouldn't place much evidential value on the last quote's being in 1882, since the word is in the part of the alphabet that hasn't been revised and updated; this entry is almost surely carried over from OED1.
>
Right; that's what I had in mind in saying "not worked on lately"; but whether an updated entry should reflect the incorporation of non-meat aspects of humans would seem to depend on how widespread the practice is--not the anthropophagous practice, but that of using the term in this sense.  Surely not any old occasional metaphorical extensions of any old word earn their way into the lexicon.

LH

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