edacious

adjective

eda·​cious i-ˈdā-shəs 

1

archaic : of or relating to eating

2

: voracious

edacity

i-ˈda-sə-tē 

noun

Did you know?

Tempus edax rerum. That wise Latin line by the Roman poet Ovid translates as "Time, the devourer of all things." Ovid's correlation between rapaciousness and time is appropriate to a discussion of edacious. That English word is a descendant of Latin edax, which is a derivative of the verb edere, meaning "to eat." In its earliest known English uses, edacious meant "of or relating to eating." It later came to be used generally as a synonym of voracious, and it has often been used specifically in contexts referring to time. That's how Scottish essayist and historian Thomas Carlyle used it when he referred to events "swallowed in the depths of edacious Time."

Synonyms

• esurient
• gluttonous
• greedy
• hoggish
• piggish
• rapacious
• ravenous
• swinish
• voracious

Examples of edacious in a Sentence

my edacious dining companion could always be counted on to order the largest—and often most expensive—item on the menu

Word History

Etymology

Latin edac-, edax, from edere to eat — more at eat

First Known Use

circa 1798, in the meaning defined at sense 1

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