Let's claim back vegetarianism

[walterbyrd]

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Vegetarian definition in American English | Collins English Dictionary

Vegetarian definition: Someone who is vegetarian never eats meat or fish. | Meaning, pronunciation, translations and examples in American English

www.collinsdictionary.com

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That is what the word has come to mean. But I mean if we break the word down to it's prefix and suffix. I found this post on another forum, I think it's correct:

The suffix is not "-tarian" but "-arian", which often means "a person who practices or believes in something".

If words like "humanitarian", "authoritarian" or "communitarian" end in "-tarian" it is because they come from words that ends in "-ty" (humanity, authority, community), which is not the case with a word like "grammarian", for example, which comes from "grammar".

Seems to me the literal meaning of "vegetarian" would be: somebody who practices or believes in a vegetable diet. Eggs and Milk are not vegetables.

What we commonly call a "vegetarian" would probably be better expressed as a non-meat eater. Maybe non-carnivorous or something.

 

[shyvas]

The Vegetarian society's definition of a vegetarian is as follows:

Vegetarians and vegans don’t eat products or by-products of slaughter. They don’t eat any foods which have been made using processing aids from slaughter.​