Do you know what Entomophagyis?
Entomophagy is the practice of eating insects - including arachnids (tarantulas) and myriapods (centipedes).
The word “entomophagy” derives from the Greek term éntomos, or éntomon, meaning, “insect(ed),” literally meaning “cut in two,” referring to an insect’s segmented body, and phăgein, “to eat.” Combined, the two terms mean, “insect eating.”
As a point of information the word itself is a rather new term. There’s no record of its coinage in the Oxford English Dictionary and its first usage to denote a human behavior may well be as recent as the 1950s.
There are no words equivalent to ‘entomophagy’ in the languages of the many ethnic groups that practice insect consumption, simply because these peoples never distinguished between insects and other varieties of food.
Why eat bugs?
Insects have served as a nutritional, tasty and safe food source for people for tens of thousands of years, all over the planet. Today insect eating is rare in the developed world, but eating insects is a common practice in over 13 countries. Insects remain a popular food in many developing regions of Central and South America, Africa, Australia and Asia. It’s only a matter of time till Eurocentric based cultures, like the United States, Canada and Europe catch on. Read more here.
