The Occasional Epicure

Occasional updates on my eating and cooking adventures...

Saturday, March 12, 2005

Entrée - some cool food words

To launch my new blog, I thought I'd share these five food-related words that I learned recently from the A.Word.A.Day newsletter.

ebrious (EE-bree-uhs) adjective
1. Inclined to excessive drinking.
2. Tipsy.


[From Latin ebrius (drunk). Two cousins of this word are inebriated and sobriety.]

sitophobia

(sy-tuh-FO-bee-uh) noun
Morbid aversion to food.

[From Greek sito- (food) + -phobia (fear, aversion).]

The word is also spelled as sitiophobia. Two related words are sitomania (abnormal craving for food), and sitology (the study of nutrition).

polyphagia (pol-ee-FAY-jee-uh) noun
1. Excessive appetite or eating.
2. The habit of feeding on many kinds of food.

[From Modern Latin, from Greek polyphagia, from polyphagos,from poly- (much, many) + phagy (eating).]

bibacious (by-BAY-shuhs) adjective
Overly fond of drinking.


[From Latin bibere (to drink).]

postprandial (post-PRAN-dee-uhl) adjective
After a meal, especially dinner.


[From Latin post- (after) + prandium (meal). Ultimately from Indo-European root ed- (to eat or to bite) that has given otherwords such as edible, comestible, obese, etch, and fret.]

Two siblings of this word are preprandial (before a meal) and prandial (relating to a meal).