anthropophagi

English

Etymology

From Latin anthrōpophagī, the plural of anthrōpophagus, from 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.

   • c. 1603–1604 (date written), William Shakespeare, The Tragœdy of Othello, the Moore of Venice. […] (First Quarto), London: […] N[icholas] O[kes] for Thomas Walkley, […], published 1622, →OCLC, [Act I, scene iii], page 13:

     It was my hent to ſpeake, ſuch was the proceſſe:
     And of the Cannibals, that each other eate;
     The Anthropophagie, and men whoſe heads
     Doe grow beneath their ſhoulders: […]

   • 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.

Alternative forms

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

Derived terms

• anthropophagous (adjective)

Latin

Noun

anthrōpophagī

1. inflection of anthrōpophagus:
   1. nominative/vocative plural
   2. genitive singular

References

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