This week’s theme
There’s a word for it

This week’s words
solivagant
hyperphagia


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A.Word.A.Day

PRONUNCIATION:

(hy-puhr-FAY-jee-uh)

MEANING:

noun: Compulsive overeating.

ETYMOLOGY:

From Greek hyper- (over) + -phagia (eating). Earliest documented use: 1941.

NOTES:

Before winter denning, a bear’s favorite type of food is simply “Yes!” Human hyperphagia can have medical causes, including damage to the hypothalamus, which helps regulate hunger and satiety. It can be a symptom, not a character flaw; judgment need not be on the menu.

In this sense, a synonym is polyphagia. But if someone overeats many different kinds of food, polyphagia totally applies.

USAGE:

“Then in the fall, the animals transition into hyperphagia, when ‘pretty much all their energy is devoted to eating as much as possible,’ Perry says.”
Melissa Hobson; Hibernating Bears Could Hold a Clue to Treating Diabetes; National Geographic (Washington, DC); Sep 27, 2022.

See more usage examples of hyperphagia in Vocabulary.com’s dictionary.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: