-phagous

#etymology #suffix Published: 2021-12-22

The suffix “-phagous” forms lots of interesting English adjectives that mean “that feeds on X”, where X is expressed by the first element of the word. Honestly, I didn’t know most of the words I wrote below, but I found that some of them are really easy to understand when compared to other basic English words, so I’ll share them with you.

anthropophagous

That feeds on human flesh.

The prefix “anthropo-“ forms terms relating to humanity or human beings (cf. anthropology).

helicophagous

That feeds on snails.

The part “helico” means “snail” or “spiral”, which helps me to understand how the word “helicopter” was formed.

hemophagous

That feeds on blood.

This word reminds me of the name hemoglobin in the red blood cells. (although hematophagous, where hemato- is a variant of hemo-, seems more common.)

oligophagous

That feeds on a restricted range of food.

The prefix “oligo-“ means “having few”. “Oligosaccharide”¹ (in Japanese, オリゴ糖) comes from the same origin.

ornithophagous

That feeds on birds.

Related English words include “ornithology”, meaning “the study of birds”. This term is widely used in general (https://youglish.com/pronounce/ornithology/english/us).

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reference

• https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Category:English_words_suffixed_with_-phagous

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