A name for human-eaters

In the fantasy/sci-fi story I've been working on, Red Right Hand, there's a race of genetically engineered, exclusively human-eating predators running around called homovores. (From the Latin roots meaning "man-eater.") Problem is, "homovore" is a little too mouthy for casual dialogue. Could somebody help me out in giving them a common name? Let me draw a mental picture for you:

Homovores are humanoid in build, but with a slouching posture. Their jaws are huge, centipede-like mandibles wrapping around the sides of the head, and they have an extra pair of arms sprouting from the ribcage. All of the more vulnerable parts of the body (chest, head, knees etc.) are protected by exoskeletal armor in addition to the typical endoskeleton of a mammal. They have a call that sounds very much like a baby or small child crying, and another that imitates a feminine scream. These creatures are ambush predators and usually act alone but may hunt in small, loose-knit packs.

edited 30th Sep '10 4:08:10 PM by Takwin

Hello, High Octane Nightmare Fuel.

They sound and look terrifying, so give them a scary name. How about Death howlers?

That sounds horrifying as hell.

What kind of name are you looking for? A term, or a prefix suffix name or an acronym?

edited 30th Sep '10 12:14:52 PM by Tnophelia

Cannibals? You'd be surprised at how common knowledge can distort things for convenience's sake. Or maybe Maeaters?

^ Please don't name them cannibals. For the sake of the English language.

Ghouls?

Could just go the word-shortening route and call then phages. The Greek savy will go "doesn't everything eat??" but their questions would be answered soon enough.

edited 30th Sep '10 5:32:08 PM by Bur

Homovore?

I likely screwed up the latin there, but the general idea seems solid.

Screamers.

Also, -phage is Greek. -vore, as noted above, is the proper root.

You could also call them Cibicidae, 'eaters', and shorten the name to 'Cibs'.

edited 30th Sep '10 2:44:16 PM by Morgulion

And the Greek equivalent, I think, is Androphage.

That said, I like Morgulion's suggestion. Partially, I admit, because of the potential for puns about ludicrous Cibs.

Anthrophage, to be precise. Andro is "man, as in a male", "anthro" is "man, as in humanity""

^ But "anthroid" just sounds silly, is that it?

The word came into popularity in the nineteenth century, when "man" and "humankind" were basically synonyms in that sort of context.

Thanks for the etymology correction: I think I'll go with "homovore" for the sake of taxonomic accuracy (species name=Latin,) from now on.

Sorry, Q, but cannibal won't work because these things aren't human. "Ghoul" and "screamer" sound okay, but I don't know if I want to apply a mythological name to them and they cry much more often then they scream. The kind of name I'm shooting for is something relatively easy to say and natural-sounding for these horrible things: a nickname or slang devised by the few non-scientists who've caught wind of them.

And thank you, Tnophelia and heartlessmushroom: High Octane Nightmare Fuel is exactly what I was hoping for, and if these things can freak people out it means I'm doing my job.

edited 30th Sep '10 4:10:07 PM by Takwin

^ One recommendation against homovore, because it sounds like a sexual fetish.

edited 30th Sep '10 4:29:41 PM by FeoTakahari

Horrormaws (or Bonemaws, Mawscreech). From what I know Maw means mouth or a giant hole that things go into. Satias, from "insatiable". Ungars, a twistword of hunger. Reams, twistword for scream.

A friend suggested Vorlocks.

^ the "Yoma" from Claymore sounds like a fetish too.

edited 30th Sep '10 4:51:38 PM by Tnophelia

Alright, bear with me for a moment.

They could have enormous, bulging foreheads, and their insectoid mandibles could be said to come together at the mouth in a way that resembles a facemask, with receded cheek bones and eye sockets making their head look like a natural helmet. Their hunchback posture, which sometimes causes their forearms to trail along the ground, is accentuated by their shoulders and upper torso having the bulkiest armor.

I propose that you also recolor them a shade of striking violet with dull, yellowish stripes, and a pasty white midsection. Thus the name, the Purple People Eaters.

Ah, and secondly, please don't forget that the human arm is a complex appendage that is highly reliant on the shoulder for much of its strength in movement. Just grafting an arm to a humanoid's torso without the proper musculature would be about as useful as taking any old animal's leg and stitching it into your armpit.

Which is to say, it would hardly be useful at all.

Alright, first of all, "homovore" sounds increasingly gross the longer I think about it, so I think I'm going to settle with anthrophage as their scientific name. Anthrophage is the correct use Greek roots, right?

Thanks for the suggestion, Toodles, but I already have a pretty good idea of what these guys look like. The mandibles have a layer of flesh on them, rather like human gums, and the bony ridges on the mandibles are teeth. I'll try to scan and post some sketches of them soon. And as for purple people eaters... A bright purple predator would be pretty easy to see, so I don't think that would be very effective.

"Horrormaws" is a bit too long, Tnophelia, but I like the "maw" theme a lot. Maybe I could just refer to them as maws? Remember, this has to be the kind of name people can shout when something comes screeching at them.

^Make that anthropophage.

Yay! i'm useful!

why does it seem like everyone else comes up with the good ideas?

A predator designed to hunt humans, eh? You've got a great idea of what such a predator would hunt us.

Eh, the whole first bit of my post was pretty much a bad joke. The important part was the point I had about the arms.

So I suppose to stay on topic, I'll say that you should remember that there will almost undoubtedly be lots of names for these things. Semantics grow up from all over the place, and they're not the same throughout even a single region. If we're talking about an ambush predator here, though, I think that the sort of slang or common term for them should be something hard and short.

Something like tiger, snake, shark, cougar. Nothing very long. Like you said, something short, so people can scream it out with some oomph. It sounds a lot more dramatic when someone can shriek a guttural syllable before getting popped. I like Tnoph's shorter names: I could see someone on the street referring to those "damn ungars," while the politicians addressing the issue would use a word like "homovore", whereas scientific papers that a character might be leafing through would use terms like "anthropophages."

As long as you make the context pretty apparent, there shouldn't be too much confusion over why one thing is called so many different things.

"Alright, first of all, "homovore" sounds increasingly gross the longer I think about it, so I think I'm going to settle with anthrophage as their scientific name. Anthrophage is the correct use Greek roots, right? "

Shouldn't something with the sole/primary intent, rather than eating them because they fall under "moving thing made of meat", of eating people be gross?

Teach me to read the whole thing instead of skimming it. Ignore this. ^_^

edited 4th Oct '10 11:26:25 PM by Anaheyla