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Discuss Email this Feedback RSS/XML Permalink A.Word.A.Day--xerophagy This week's theme: words related to food. xerophagy (zi-ROF-uh-jee) noun The eating of dry food, especially food that's cooked without oil. [From Latin xero- (dry), from Greek xeros + Latin -phagy (eating), from Greek phagia. In the early Christian Church, xerophagy meant eating food cooked in water and salt during Lent. Xerophagy has also been practiced in prison and in the military as a form of punishment.] -Anu Garg (words at wordsmith.org) "Your Uncle Charles had his blood cholesterol tested late last week. Though the verdict rendered was no worse than a rather unperspicuous 'Normal to Upper-normal', the penultimate modifier has caused, as you might anticipate, much pacing and high-decibel whingeing, as well as vows of eternal xerophagy from here on out." David Foster Wallace; Infinite Jest: A Novel; Little, Brown and Company; 1996. X-Bonus To suffering there is a limit; to fearing, none. -Francis Bacon, essayist, philosopher, and statesman (1561-1626)

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