An archaic or rare adjective meaning 'resembling, characteristic of, or relating to cannibals or cannibalism.'
Formed from 'cannibal' (possibly from Carib, an indigenous people) plus the suffix -ean (relating to). This scholarly formation appears in older texts discussing anthropology.
This word reflects how Victorian-era scholars created elaborate terms for behaviors they found shocking—the suffix -ean was used to create pseudo-scientific descriptors.
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