anthropophagi

The plural of Latin anthropophagus, from Ancient Greek ἀνθρωποφάγος (anthrōpophágos, “man-eating”), English since 1581 (as an ethnonym). Use of the singular anthropophagus is rare.

anthropophagi

1. plural of anthropophagus
   • 1581, B. Gilpin, A godly sermon preached in the court at Greenwich

     Histories make mention of a people called Anthropophagi, eaters of men.

   • 1837, J. D. Lang, An historical and statistical account of New South Wales I. 386

     A poor New Zealander, whose forefathers had from time immemorial been anthropophagi.

   • c. 1603–1604, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Othello, the Moore of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: Printed by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, [Act 1, (please specify the scene number in lowercase Roman numerals)]:

     It was my hint to speak,—such was the process;

     And of the Cannibals that each other eat,

     The Anthropophagi, and men whose heads

     Do grow beneath their shoulders.

• capitalized Anthropophagi, as the name of a supposed people of man-eaters in ancient ethnography.

• anthropophagous (adjective)

anthrōpophagī

1. nominative plural of anthrōpophagus
2. genitive singular of anthrōpophagus
3. vocative plural of anthrōpophagus

• anthropophagi in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898) Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers