Phagy Words: “pagophagia” to “zoophagous”,
Part 4 of 4
Words that include: phago-, phag-, -phage, -phagi,
-phagic, -phagically, -phagia, -phagism, -phagist, -phagic,
-phagous, -phag (Greek: eat, eating, consume, ingest)
 If you would like to take a self- scoring quiz over some of the words in this section, then click Phagy-Quiz which is located at the end of this set of definitions so you can see how much you know about these “phagy” words. pagophagia, pagophagous, pagophagy:
The ingestion of extraordinary quantities of ice [frost], often related to a lack of iron in the blood.
pantophagist:
One who eats just about everything.
pantophagous, pantophagy:
Eating or requiring a variety of foods; eating both animal and vegetable matter; omnivorous.
pedophagous (Brit., paedophagous), pedophagy:
Feeding on embryos and the young stages of other species.
phagelysis:
The destructive or solvent action of phage [bacteriophage].
phagocyte:
Any cell capable of ingesting particulate matter.
phagocytosis:
The engulfing and ingesting of foreign particles or waste matter by phagocytes.
phagodynamometer:
An apparatus for measuring the force exerted in chewing food.
phagologist, phagology:
1. A specialist in eating and the study of eating or ingesting foods.
2. The subject of eating or feeding; dietetic.
phagolysis:
The destruction of phagocytes.
phagomania:
An insatiable hunger or craving for food, or an obsessive preoccupation with the subject of eating.
phagophobia:
An irrational fear of eating.
phagotherapy:
The treatment of an illness with specific kinds of food.
phagotrophic, phagotroph, phagotrophy:
Feeding by ingesting organic particulate matter; a reference to cells in the blood or body fluid that ingest foreign particles.
phagozoite:
An animal that feeds on disintegrating or dead tissue.
phthirophagous:
Eating lice.
phyllophagous, phayllophage, phyllophagy:
1. To feed on leaves.
2. A reference to plants that obtain nourishment from their leaves.
phytophagous, phytophage, phytophagy:
Feeding on plants or on plant material.
pleophagous, pleophage, pleophagy:
1. Feeding on a variety of food substances or food species.
2. A reference to a parasite associated with a variety of hosts.
pneumophagia:
The same as aerophagia; excessive swallowing of air, usually an unconscious process associated with anxiety, resulting in abdominal distention or belching, often interpreted by the patient as signs of a physical disorder, etc.
pollenophagous, pollenophage, pollenophagy:
Feeding on pollen.
poltophagy:
1. Ingesting porridge [an alteration of pottage; that is, cereal, such as oatmeal, boiled until thick and usually eaten with milk] or pottage [a thick vegetable, or meat and vegetable soup or stew].
2. Thorough chewing of food.
polyphagia, polyphagous, polyphagy:
1. Eating many kinds of food or consuming a great variety of foods.
2. Excessive, compulsive, or a continuous desire to eat.
psomophagia, psomophagy:
1. To eat morsels or bits of food; such as, certain birds, fish, etc. From Greek, “a morsel, bit”.
2. In medicine, it is defined as, The practice of swallowing food without thorough mastication (without thoroughly chewing it).
3. A related term, flecherism, promotes taking small amounts of food at a time and chewing each small quantity for a prolonged period before swallowing. Promoted by, and named for, Horace Fletcher, U.S. dietitian, 1849-1919.
rhizophagous, rhizophagy:
1. Feeding on roots.
2. A reference to a plant that obtains nourishment through its own roots.
rhypophagous, rhypophagy:
The eating of filth, excrement, putrid matter, or refuse.
saprophagous, saprophagy:
Feeding on dead or decaying organic matter; biophagous.
sarcophagous, sarcophagus, sarcophagy:
1. Literally, eating or consuming flesh; flesh-eating.
2. From Greek, sarkophagos, through Latin, sarcophagus; so named because the limestone, in which people were buried, caused rapid disintegration or decomposition of the bodies.
3. Among the ancient Greeks and Romans, it was a limestone coffin or tomb, often instribed and ornamented.
4. Now, by extension, the term is used for any stone coffin, especially a large or monumental tomb.
saurophagous:
To eat lizards; the eating of lizards.
scatophagous, scatophagy:
1. To eat fecal matter or dung; as done by dung beetles or their larvae, other insects, etc.
2. The eating of filth or excrement by some people who are suffering from insanity.
scolecophagous, scolecophagy:
Eating worms.
sialoaerophagia, sialoaerophagy:
In medicine, the excessive or frequent swallowing of saliva and air which are taken into the stomach.
stenophagous, stenophagy, stenophage:
1. Utilizing only a limited variety of foods or food species.
2. An antonym of euryphagous.
sycophagous, sycophagy, sycophage:
Feeding on figs.
tachyphagia, tachyphagous, tachyphagy:
Extremely or excessively fast eating; the bolting or gobbling down of food.
tecnophagia, tecnophagous, tecnophagy:
A reference to species that eat their own eggs.
theophagite, theophagous, theophagy:
1. The eating of God (in the mass or communion rite).
2. In anthropology, the eating of meals at which the participants believe that they ingest a deity with the consecrated food.
thermophagy:
The consumption of excessively hot food.
trichophagia, trichophagy:
The practice or habit of biting or eating hair or wool.
xerophagia, xerophagy:
1. The eating of dry foodstuffs; subsisting on a dry diet.
2. A diet of bread and water. Actually, xerophagy refers to a type of religious fast in which the jejunator [the person who fasts] consumes only bread, salt, unseasoned vegetables, and water. It’s strange that a word element [xero] which means “dry”, includes water.
xylophage, xylophagist, xylophagous, xylophagy:
1. The eating of wood; thriving on wood as a source of food; such as, certain molluscs, insects, and fungi.
2. Eating or boring into wood, as the larvae of certain insects.
zoophagous, zoophage, zoophagy:
Feeding on animals or animal matter; carnivorous.
 You may take a self- scoring quiz over some of the words in this section by just clicking on Phagy Quiz #4 to check your word knowledge for this section. |