I'm in the process of writing a story involving vampires and other sorts of cannibalistic humanoids, however, I need to find a term to describe someone who doesn't eat human, in the same vein as how a person who doesn't eat meat is a vegetarian. So far, the best i can come up with is an ethotarian, which is derived from the "etho" of ethology, which is the study of animals and animal behavior, combined with the "tarian" suffix of vegetarian. However, i'm not sure how clear this is, since the "etho" prefix is more prominently used to as a prefix meaning "logic". Is there a proper term for this, or are there any better alternatives to what i currently have?
There is no ratified, accepted antonym for cannibal, or a word to describe the overlapping, but not quite the same meaning of that which does not consume humans. Ethotarian... The logic is sound as regards the prefix meaning, but it is quite esoteric in that use. It doesn't readily announce its meaning so you'll likely be pressed into creating a little exchange between characters where the meaning gets clarified. Those bits do have a tendency to sound exactly like what they are, moments where the characters are talking to the reader rather than each other. Exotarain... The meaning is nowhere near as linguistically precise, exo being a prefix with a rather broad, generalized meaning of outer, outside, foreign, outgroup, etc. But exo as a prefix does feel a little more intuitive to the average reader of Fantasy and especially Science Fiction where it comes up with regularity, meaning that which is foreign, not us.
Cannibal comes from the Spanish word canibal or caribal, meaning "a savage." Try playing around with google translate and some Spanish antonyms for savage.
Actually, it comes from a corrupted pronunciation of Caribe, the people who gave their name to the entire region, the Caribbean, but yes, they were certainly seen as savages by the Spaniards, and quite distinct from their more peaceable neighbors, the Tainos. Regardless, I like the linguistic thought process behind @Rzero's idea. In Spanish, cultured (the antonym for savage) is culto. A neck was displayed for Martel's consideration. "No thank you. I'm strictly culto. Have you any fresh deer?"
I just got it from Wikipedia. It's the same root though: canibales = the Carib people (who were supposedly cannibals) canibal/caribal = a savage person. That's interesting about the Caribbean though. I wouldn't have made the connection. Good call on "cultured," by the way. The few words I thought of like "civilized," sophisticated," etc. all had the same Latin roots in Spanish and English and wouldn't have worked as well. I think I like cannibal/cultobal, though you could play with the spelling and bastardize it like the word caribal to cannibal, changing culto to coltibal, culchibal, corthibal, whatever sounds good to you, really.
Stick in the mud? There's no word for that in English, but you could find a lexicon of some cannibal language and look for one there.
