cannibalism

Etymology

It is formed from English cannibal + -ism.^[2][3][4] Etymonline suggests it may come from French cannibalisme, which it finds recorded in 1796, the year of its own first English record.^[3] Cannibal is from Spanish caníbal, a member of the Carib people and later a person who eats human flesh,^[2][3] from “Caniba”, Columbus's rendering of the Caribs' name for themselves.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The practice of eating the flesh of one's own kind: 1634, in Thomas Herbert's A Relation of Some Yeares Trauaile.^[2][5] Etymonline and Merriam-Webster Unabridged date the word to 1796,^[3][6] and Dictionary.com to 1790–1800.^[4]

Semantic evolution

A figurative sense, barbarity or destructiveness towards one's own kind, followed in 1702, and in later use the word often meant the consumption or absorption of one thing by another of a similar kind.^[2] From 1846 it was also used of taking something over for use in another thing of the same sort, or of breaking something up to provide parts for something else,^[2][5] the sense of the verb cannibalize.^[2] Merriam-Webster Unabridged also extends the word to animals that eat their own kind or their eggs, and to animals that eat human flesh.^[6]

Timeline

• 1634 – the eating of the flesh of one's own kind.^[2][5] Etymonline and Merriam-Webster Unabridged date the word to 1796.^[3][6]
• 1702 – figurative, barbarity towards one's own kind.^[2]
• 1846 – the taking of parts from one thing for use in another.^[2][5]

Meanings

Noun

1. The eating of human flesh by human beings.^[6][7][3]
2. The eating of the flesh or eggs of an animal by others of its own kind.^[6][2]
3. Savage cruelty or destructiveness, especially towards one's own kind.^[7][2]
4. The use of parts taken from one thing to build or repair another of the same kind.^[2]

Word family

• cannibalistic
• cannibalistically

Related words

• cannibal

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
5. ^ a b c d Kay, Christian; Roberts, Jane; Samuels, Michael; Wotherspoon, Irené, eds. (2009), Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press; online edition (2024)
6. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins