c. 1600, literally "lotus-eaters," from Greek lotophagoi (plural), from lotos (see lotus) + -phagos "eating" (from PIE root *bhag- "to share out, apportion; to get a share"). Related: Lotophagous.

word-forming element meaning "eating, feeding on," from Latin -phagus, from Greek -phagos "eater of," from phagein "to eat," literally "to have a share of food," from PIE root *bhag- "to share out, apportion; to get a share."

"the consumption of feces," 1885; Latinized from earlier coprophagy (q.v.), from Latinized form of Greek koprophagos "dung-eating," from kopros "dung" (see copro-) + -phagos "eating" (from PIE root *bhag- "to share out, apportion; to get a share").

"put (someone) on a fixed allowance," 1859, from ration (n.); sense of "divide into rations, apportion in fixed amounts" is from 1870. Related: Rationed; rationing. Middle English racionable (late 15c.) meant "reasonable."

word-forming element meaning "eating," from Greek phago- "eating, devouring," from PIE root *bhag- "to share out, apportion; to get a share." As in Phagiphany, the name of the Church festival celebrating the miracle of the fishes and loaves.

"cannibalistic, man-eating," 1807, from Greek anthrōpophagos "man-eating," from anthrōpos "man, human" (see anthropo-) + phagos "eating" (from PIE root *bhag- "to share out, apportion; to get a share"). Related: Anthropophagite (c. 1600).

"cannibalism," 1630s, from French anthropophagie, from Greek anthrōpophagia "an eating of men," from anthrōpophagos "man-eating; a man-eater," from anthropo- + stem of phagein "to eat" (from PIE root *bhag- "to share out, apportion; to get a share"). Related: Anthropophagic; anthropophagistic; anthropophagism. Shakespeare has Anthropophaginian.

1580s, "to apportion to someone as his share; to apportion out to others; to enjoy or suffer (something) with others," from share (n.1). The meaning "to divide one's own and give part to others" is recorded from 1590s; also "have a part, get one's portion;" also, of two or more, "to each take a portion."

The sense of "confess one's sins openly" (1932, implied in sharing) is said in OED to be from the Moral Rearmament movement, in which "the sharing of our sins and temptations with another Christian life given to God" was a principal spiritual activity. Share and share alike is attested from 1560s. Related: Shared; sharing.

"of or pertaining to the eating of raw food," especially raw flesh, 1857, from omophagia (1706), from Greek, "eating raw flesh," from ōmos "raw" (see omo-) + phagein "to eat" (from PIE root *bhag- "to share out, apportion; to get a share"). Related: Omophagic.

also oesophagus, late 14c., from Greek oisophagos "gullet, passage for food," literally "what carries and eats," from oisein, future infinitive of pherein "to carry" (from PIE root *bher- (1) "to carry") + -phagos, from phagein "to eat" (from PIE root *bhag- "to share out, apportion; to get a share"). Related: Esophageal.