cannibal

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   a person who eats human flesh

   The story portrays the isolated sailor as a cannibal, though the accusation is never proved.

2. 2
   noun

   an animal or other organism that eats a member of its own species

   A larger scorpion may become a cannibal and devour a smaller one.

Borrowed from Spanish canibal, an early variant of caribal derived from the name of the Carib people, ultimately from a Cariban form meaning 'person.' European reports associated that people with eating human flesh, and the ethnonym was generalized into the common noun. Carib and Caribbean are related forms.

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