Balanephagous

Quick meaning: Balanephagous is an adjective meaning (rare) Acorn-eating.

Meaning

(rare) Acorn-eating.

Example Sentences

The San Francisco Bay Ohlones shared the same technique of tannin leaching as employed by all the other balanophagous Californians.

The one region of the earth where balanophagy attained its richest development was aboriginal California. I say “richest,” because there the methods of ridding the acorns of the objectionable tannin were most developed and moreover many species were eaten, putting to shame the balanophagous propensities of the Arcadians.

In earlier Milling Stone times, both men and women gathered and probably processed plant foods. Now, women shouldered the entire burden of pounding, storing, and cooking acorns. During the critical weeks of harvest, everyone — men, women, and children — worked flat out. But, once the harvest was over, acorns were women’s work. Survival literally depended on their balanophagous activities.

During the winter months, when hunting and fishing were difficult and fresh vegetal foods unavailable, consumption of stored acorn products may have exceeded that of all other foods. Thus it is hardly an exaggeration to categorize native economies of this area as balanophagous (acorn eating), or, in view of the dense populations associated with them, to consider this adaptation as paralleling in importance the development of agriculture in other areas.

Word Forms

• balanophagous

Related Words

Related dictionary entries include balanophagous, mallophagous, hylophagous, gumnivorous, xylophagous, arachnophagous.

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