We all know that vegetarians do not eat meat, but what do flexitarians eat? Modeled on the word vegetarian, a flexitarian is someone who is a “flexible vegetarian” – a vegetarian who will generally avoids but will occasionally eat meat. It is interesting to note that is not necessarily synonymous with omnivore. It refers to a small community of self-identified vegetarians who eat meat, and is not applicable as “omnivore who eats a lot of vegetables.” The word itself is quite a wonderful construct – blending the phrase “flexible vegetarian” into a single word with far fewer syllables by taking the Latin root flex- (the participle stem of flectere) and attaches it to the suffix –arian of vegetarian, itself modeled after vegetable (veget+ -able).
While it is a relatively new word, it is only beginning to be used regularly. In 2003, The American Dialect Society voted it “The Year’s Most Useful Word”. Seven years later, it is rapidly gaining popularity and is slowly ceasing to look like a brand-new construction each time it is used. Most recently, “Weekday Vegetarians”, an article in the August 23rd edition ofTime Magazine, uses flexitarian to describe an American Dietetic Association spokesperson. It is going to be especially exciting to see if this new word will ever stop looking so “new” and become a part of our permanent lexicon like vegetarian has.
Comments