phago-, phag-, -phage, -phagi, -phagic, -phagically, -phagia, -phagism, -phagist, -phagic, -phagous, -phagy

(Greek: eat, eating; to consume, to ingest; relationship to eating or consumption by ingestion or engulfing)

harpactophagous, harpactophage, harpactophagy
Feeding by preying on other animals; predatory, used especially with reference to insects.

From Greek harpago-, harpag-, meaning “a hook for seizing; a robbery, rape, seizure, plunder”.

hematophagy
1. Blood drinking.
2. Subsisting on the blood of another animal.
hemophagy, haemophagy, hematophagous, haematophagous
The habit of certain creatures, or organisms, to feed on blood.

Some intestinal nematodes, such as the Ascaris, feed on blood extracted from the capillaries of the gut and many species of leeches are examples of hematophagous creatures.

Some fish; such as, lampreys, and certain mammals, especially the vampire bats, also practice hematophagy.

Among the hematophagous insects of medical importance are the sandfly, blackflies, tsetse flies, bedbugs, assassin bugs, mosquitoes, ticks, lice, mites, midges, chiggers, and fleas.

heterophage
Feeding on a wide variety of food items; a reference to a parasite utilizing a wide variety of hosts.
heterophagism, heterophagous, heterophagy
Digestion within a cell of an exogenous substance phagocytosed from the cell’s environment.
hippophagi
Eaters of horse meat.
hippophagism, hippophagous, hippophagy
The practice of eating horseflesh; such as, is done by the French and Belgians in Europe; and others around the world.
hippophagist
Anyone who eats the meat of horses as a source of food.
histophagous
Eating or subsisting on tissues; such as, certain protozoa, especially those ciliates, ectoparasitic or endoparasitic, in or on nonvital tissues of their hosts.
hyalophagia, hyalophagy
The eating or chewing of glass.
hydradephagous
Belonging to the Hydradephaga or aquatic carnivorous beetles.
hylophagous, hylophage, hylophagy
Feeding on wood; such as, termites.
hyperphagia (high" pur FAY jee uh)
1. The ingestion of a greater than optimal quantity of food; over eating; gluttony.
2. An abnormally increased desire for food frequently resulting from injury to the autonomic regulatory center in the brain; to gorge.
ichthyophagan
An ichthyophagist (fish eater).
ichthyophage
1. The eating of fish; also, piscivorous.
2. The consumption of fish in the diet.

Related "eat, eating" word units: brycho-; esculent-; esophago-; glutto-; vor-.

Cross references of word families that are related directly, or indirectly, to: "food, nutrition, nourishment": alimento-; broma-; carno-; cibo-; esculent-; sitio-; tropho-; Eating Crawling Snacks; Eating: Carnivorous-Plant "Pets"; Eating: Folivory or Leaf Eaters; Eating: Omnivorous.


Quiz If you would like to take self-scoring quizzes over some of the words in this thematic unit, then click Phago Quizzes, so you can evaluate your knowledge about some of these "eat, eating" words.