- cannibal
- 1550s, from Sp. canibal "a savage, cannibal," from Caniba, Christopher Columbus' rendition of the Caribs' name for themselves (see Caribbean). The natives were believed to be anthropophagites. Columbus, seeking evidence that he was in Asia, thought the name meant the natives were subjects of the Great Khan. Shakespeare's Caliban (in "The Tempest") is a version of this word, with -n- and -l- interchanged, found in Hakluyt's "Voyages" (1599). The Sp. word had reached French by 1515.
- cannibalize
- "take parts from one construction and use them in another," 1943, originally of military equipment, from cannibal + -ize. Cannibalization is recorded from 1947.
- cannibalistic
- 1851, from cannibal + -istic.
- cannibalism
- 1796, from cannibal + -ism. Perhaps from Fr. cannibalisme, from the same year.
- maneater
- c.1600, "cannibal," from man (n.) + eater (see eat). 1837 in reference to animals (sharks); 1862 of tigers; 1906 of women.
- Mohawk
- "haircut style favored by punk rockers," c.1975, from fancied resemblance to hair style of Mohawk Indians. The style of cut earlier was called a Mohican (1960). The tribe is Iroquoian; the name, first recorded in Eng. as the pl. Mohowawogs (1638), is said to mean "they eat living things" in a southern New England Algonquian tongue, probably a ref. to cannibalism. Cf. Unami Delaware /muhuwe:yck/ "cannibal monsters." The people's name for themselves is kanye'keha:ka. Variant form Mohoc was the name given 1711 to gangs of aristocratic London ruffians.