balanephagous

Adjective

balanephagous (not comparable)

1. (rare) Acorn-eating.
   • The man with whom we take shelter has his wife and children, and his sons’ wives and all their children, to the number of twelve or fifteen, in the tent. Milk and misíthra is their only food: “We have milk in plenty,” they tell me, “but no bread.” Such is the life of a modern Arcadian shepherd, who...1830, William Martin Leake, “chapter 11: Messenia — Arcadia”, in Travels in the Morea: With a Map and Plans, volume 1, pages 487–488
   • 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...1936, Robert Harry Lowie, editor, Essays in Anthropology: Presented to A. L. Kroeber in Celebration of His Sixtieth Birthday, June 11, 1936, University of California Press, page 95