Sunday Word: Sanguivorous

[sallymn]

sanguivorous [sang-gwiv-er-uhs]

adjective:
feeding on blood, as a bat or insect

Examples:

There are no more than three species of bats known as vampire bats that prefer the taste of blood. Such bloodthirsty vampire bats are known as sanguivorous bats, but don’t worry, these vampire bats mostly feed on the blood of animals like cows, horses, and sheep. (How Do Vampire Bats Survive on a Diet of Blood?, LabXchange, June 2022)

Literally designed to eat a horse, their bite is both impressive and painful. The horsefly is a sanguivorous insect and therefore wants to bite you. (Joe Harker, Brits warned over summer invasion of ‘Dracula horseflies’ that can bite straight through clothes, LAD Bible, June 2023)

It seems like too much futile work in the heat of August - work bound to lead only to phony conclusions - to decipher how the sanguivorous have become the meat and drink of popular culture at the end of the first decade of the 21st century. (Ginia Bellafante, Necks Overflowing With Rivers of Metaphor, The New York Times, August, 2009)

The scientific name for these sanguinivorous creatures - Hirudo medicinalis - shows that they go way back as a medical treatment. (Leah Samuel, 7 creepy crawlies that could be the future of medicine, LAD Bible, December 2015)

Despite its masterfully renovated and pristinely white-painted facade, its porch-full of cutesy, grandmotherly knick-knacks, and its flower bed-bordered chlorophyllous lawn, the sanguinivorous spirit of this viscera-spattered abode of the anthrophophagi began to show through such a ruse of refurbishment. (Leon, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: A Horror Fiend’s TravelogueDeep Red Fall 2002)


Origin:

'blood-drinking,' 1821, from Latin sanguis 'blood' (see sanguinary) + -vorous 'eating, devouring.' Also sanguivorous, from the Latin genitive stem. (Online Etymology Dictionary)