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.

Simplified etymology

Cannibal entered English in the mid-16th century through Spanish Canibales. Columbus used that form for the Caribs of the West Indies, whom he believed to eat human flesh, and their name consequently acquired its present meaning.

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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External links

• Google Images
• Cambridge Dictionary
• Wiktionary