-vorous, suffix
forming adjs., after L. -vorus devouring, eating (cf. vorāre to devour) in carnivorus, omnivorus (both used by Pliny). The commoner English examples mainly date from the 17th cent., as carnivorous, herbivorous, omnivorous, phytivorous (also granivorous, ossivorous, piscivorous); later instances are graminivorous (1739), metallivorous, offivorous (1713), serpentivorous (1882), and terrivorous.
| 1837 Murray Vital Princ. 5 A very singular appetite..at once terrivorous and metallivorous. |