51吃瓜 of the Day
sanguivorous
adjective
feeding on blood, as a bat or insect.
More about sanguivorous
Sanguivorous 鈥渇eeding on blood鈥� is a compound of the combining forms sangui- 鈥渂lood鈥� and -vorous 鈥渄别惫辞耻谤颈苍驳.鈥� Sangui- derives from Latin sanguis, of the same meaning, but the story does not stop there. Continuing a common pattern in the Indo-European language family, the Romans had two words for 鈥渂lood鈥濃��sanguis and cruor鈥攁nd while sanguis implicitly referred to blood inside the body, cruor referred to blood outside the body, particularly in violent contexts. In this way, it should come as little surprise that cruor is distantly related to English raw (Old English 丑谤脓补飞) and Ancient Greek 办谤茅补蝉 鈥渞aw flesh,鈥� while sanguis may be a compound of the Proto-Indo-European roots for 鈥渂lood鈥� and 鈥渢o pour.鈥� While cruor survives today to some extent in modern Romance languages, it is sanguis that serves as the root of most Romance words for 鈥渂lood,鈥� such as French sang, Italian/Portuguese sangue, and Spanish sangre. Sanguivorous was first recorded in English in the mid-1800s.
how is sanguivorous used?
鈥淚n humans, anaphylactic shock can be fatal; in sanguivores, it鈥檚 less dangerous but still extraordinarily unpleasant. Garlic is to you as peanuts are to your cousin; I cannot overemphasize the importance of this鈥攁nd it鈥檚 not just garlic, it鈥檚 several other members of the allium family to lesser extents .鈥� Sanguivore just means 鈥榚ater of blood鈥� .鈥� The older term was hemophagous, but these days, all creatures who feed on blood are known as sanguivorous.鈥�
Only three mammalian species are sanguivorous鈥攖hat鈥檚 blood feeding鈥攁nd they are all bats. Blood, apparently, is not that nutritious. It has almost no carbs, fats, or vitamins; its high iron levels can disrupt heart, liver, and pancreas function; its obscenely high protein and salt levels can cause renal disease if nitrogenous waste products build up. It contains pathogens. It clots. Vampire bats have some obvious adaptations to allow them to survive on their limited and macabre diet.
sanguivorous
ravenous
adjective
extremely hungry; famished; voracious.
More about ravenous
Ravenous 鈥渆xtremely hungry鈥� is a borrowing from Old French that derives ultimately from the Latin noun 谤补辫墨苍补 鈥減lunder, robbery, pillage鈥�; the sense shifted in Old French from 鈥減lunder鈥� to describe people who are likely to plunder and then to the associated personality traits of plunderers, such as 鈥渧iolent鈥� and 鈥済reedy,鈥� and eventually came to mean 鈥渉ungry.鈥� 搁补辫墨苍补 comes from the verb rapere 鈥渢o seize,鈥� which is the source of words such as rapacious, rapid, rapt, ravish, surreptitious, and usurp. A common misconception is that ravenous is related to raven, the black-feathered bird, but raven is of Germanic origin, from Old English 丑谤牵蹿苍, and may be a distant relative of Latin corvus 鈥渞aven鈥� and Ancient Greek 办贸谤补虫 鈥渞aven, crow.鈥� (In addition, despite the similar spelling and meaning, crow is not related to corvus鈥攖hough crows and ravens are part of the genus Corvus.) Ravenous was first recorded in English in the late 1300s.
how is ravenous used?
Locusts are ravenous eaters. An adult desert locust that weighs about 2 grams (a fraction of an ounce) can consume roughly its own weight daily. And they’re not picky at all.
The merest suggestion of mouth and I was ravenous鈥擨 filled the house with chocolate, chestnuts, strudel, blood sausage; I bathed in butter.
ravenous
revenant
noun
a person who returns as a spirit after death; ghost.
More about revenant
Revenant 鈥渁 person who returns as a spirit after death鈥� is a direct borrowing from French, in which the word is a present participle meaning 鈥渃oming back, returning.鈥� The infinitive, revenir, is a combination of the prefix re- 鈥渂ack, again鈥� and venir 鈥渢o come,鈥� the latter from Latin 惫别苍墨谤别, of the same meaning. 痴别苍墨谤别 is the source of English terms such as adventure, avenue, convenient, eventual, and invention, all of which originally related to movement, gathering, or discovery (i.e., coming across something); the Latin verb derives from the same Proto-Indo-European root, 驳飞腻- 鈥渢o go, come,鈥� that gives us come, become, welcome, and the Ancient Greek-derived terms acrobat and basis (from 产补铆苍别颈苍). Revenant was first recorded in English in the 1820s.
how is revenant used?
Greek literature has often referenced the rising of the undead, like in Homer鈥檚 Odyssey, when Odysseus sacrifices a ram and an ewe to convince the dead to appear for his service. Since the concept of death was viewed as more fluid than concrete in ancient Greece, the belief that the dead could rise as revenants to fulfill their own agendas or the agendas of a conjurer was not uncommon.
One afternoon I was over at my friend Rudd鈥檚. We were in his studio, a rough space framed out above the garage. Rudd is a contractor and photographer, and we were looking at his landscape photos. We鈥檇 been talking about a picture of a barren tree in a field burning with red brush. I said something about haunted landscapes, revenants, and he grabbed a crate off a bookcase. 鈥楴ow this here鈥檒l haunt you. This is a real ghost from the past.鈥�
revenant