cannibal

n.

1. A person who eats the flesh of other humans.
2. An animal that feeds on others of its own kind.

[From Spanish Caníbalis, name (as recorded by Christopher Columbus) of the allegedly cannibalistic Caribs of Cuba and Haiti, from earlier Carib karibna, person, Carib.]

cannibalism can'ni·bal·ism n.
cannibalistic can'ni·bal·is'tic adj.

from Carib
This word originated in Cuba

Talk about misunderstandings. The terrible word cannibal is just a variation of the innocent name Carib, which we remember today in the name Caribbean. And when Columbus, exploring Cuba, heard the name Canib, he was thrilled. It was proof that he was near China, Columbus thought, because the natives were named after the Chinese ruler. "Caniba no es otra cosa sino la gente del Gran Can," he declared, that is, the "Canibs are nothing other than the people of the Grand Khan."

By the time that misconception was cleared up, another was in the making. These Caribs or Canibs, known to be warriors, were said to be eaters of human flesh: anthropophagi, to use the scientific term then current. And though later historians doubt the truth of that report, cannibal gradually became the everyday word in Spanish, and then in English, for anyone thought to eat humans. An English version of cannibal appears as early as 1553 in a translation from the Spanish. The generalization of a local name to a descriptive quality is similar to what happened centuries later in the United States when bunkum developed from Buncombe County, North Carolina, and piker from Pike County, Missouri.

The warlike Caribs came from northern South America, where there are 20,000 speakers of a language called Carib today. But the Carib language Columbus encountered was entirely different. It is sometimes called Island Carib to make the distinction clear. Island Carib belonged to the Arawakan or Maipúrean family of Central and South America. It got the name Carib because these Arawakan people were conquered and ruled by Caribs.

There are still some Island Caribs on the islands of Dominica and St. Vincent, but their language was last heard in the 1920s and is now extinct. Before its extinction, Carib gave us, through Spanish, such words as canoe (1555), caiman (crocodile, 1577), peccary (a piglike mammal, 1613), pirogue (canoe made from a hollowed tree, 1666), and curare (1777).

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The eating of flesh of living members of the same or similar species. It is common only in pigs and chickens and is due partly to boredom because of the confined space in which the animals are kept. See also infantophagia.

A cynical view of the world by Ambrose Bierce

n.

A gastronome of the old school who preserves the simple tastes and adheres to the natural diet of the pre-pork period.

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Cannibalism often represents an insatiable lust to own and possess the life force of the victim(s). Being the victim of cannibalism denotes that the dreamer may feel "eaten alive" by work, a relationship, or a condition in his or her life. Like incest and murder, cannibalism represents the worst form of something forbidden.

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Dansk (Danish)
n. - kannibal, menneskeæder

Nederlands (Dutch)
kannibaal

Français (French)
n. - cannibale, anthropophage

Deutsch (German)
n. - Kannibale, Menschenfresser

Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - κανίβαλος, ανθρωποφάγος

Italiano (Italian)
cannibale

Português (Portuguese)
n. - canibal (m) (f)

Русский (Russian)
людоед, каннибал

Español (Spanish)
n. - caníbal, antropófago

Svenska (Swedish)
n. - kannibal

中文（简体）(Chinese (Simplified))
食人者, 吃同类的动物

中文（繁體）(Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 食人者, 吃同類的動物

한국어 (Korean)
n. - 식인종

日本語 (Japanese)
adj. - 人を食う, 共食いをする
n. - 人を食う人間, 共食いをする動物

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(الاسم) آكله لحوم بشريه‏

עברית (Hebrew)
n. - ‮אוכל-אדם, קניבל, חיה הניזונה מבשר בני-מינה‬

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