Food Jargon of the Day: Vores

Having a hard time figuring out where you fit on the food chain these days? In honor of locavore's designation as the New Oxford American Dictionary 2007 word of the year, we offer a list of -vores for you to choose from. The suffix -vore comes from the Latin word vorare, meaning to devour, and is used to form nouns indicating what kind of a diet an animal has.

Careful Carnivore/Caring Carnivore/Conscientious Carnivore
Ethical meat eaters who eat only humanely-raised meat.

Humanocarnivore
Introduced by Micheal Pollan in a 2002 NY Times article to define a dietary category wherein individuals limit the meat they eat to nonindustrial, non-factory farmed animals.

Conscientious Omnivore
Individuals who choose to eat sea animals rather than land animals because they are lower on the evolutionary ladder (i.e., scallops don't feel pain)

Localvore
Vermont locavores.

Yokelvore
Individuals who eat only what they grow and/or produce.

Burgervore
From a 2006 Wendy's TV commercial. According to Fast Food Nation, the typical American consumes approximately 3 hamburgers every week.

Food Jargon of the Day: Culinology

Culinology
"The blending of culinary arts and food technology." Coined by the Research Chefs Assoication which is hosting the 2008 Culinology Expo March 6 - 9 in Seattle.

2007 Word of the Year: Locavore

The New Oxford American Dictionary 2007 word of the year is....locavore. Locavore - coined by four women in San Francisco who proposed that residents should try to eat only food grown or produced within a 100-mile radius - won out over such other 2007 key phrases as "colony collapse disorder," "cougar," "mumblecore," "previvor," and "upcycling"

Food Jargon of the Day: Vegansexual

Vegansexuals
Individuals who do not eat any meat or animal products, and who choose not to be sexually intimate with non-vegan partners whose bodies, they say, are made up of "dead animals." Annie Potts, co-director of the New Zealand Centre for Human and Animal Studies at Canterbury University, coined the term after doing research on the lives of "cruelty-free consumers."

Food Jargon of the Day: Fleischgeist

Fleischgeist
Coined by the editors at Meatpaper. "Fleischgeist (flish'gist') n. from the German, Fleisch “meat” + Geist “spirit.” Spirit of the meat. From Zeitgeist, “spirit of the times.” Fleischgeist is the idea of meat.

Food Jargon Watch: Confirmation Bias

Confirmation Bias
Tasty descriptors that help condition reluctant eaters to accept new foods - from Brian Wansink, director of the Cornell University Food and Brand Lab. Confirmation bias tricks the taste sensors by using sensory words like “tender,” “succulent” and “velvety'’ to describe foods. Apparently, once these taste sensors are activated, people become preprogrammed to think a dish tastes good.