Akademik

(PES.kuh.tayr.ee.un; PESH.uh-)

n.

A person who supplements a vegetarian diet with fish. — adj. Also: pescevegetarian, piscetarian.

—pescetarianism n.

Making dinner was tough enough before Junior became a vegan and Dad got on his low-carb, meat-eater's diet. Now planning a meal and cooking it is not only time-consuming, it's complicated.

Just ask Lateefah Viley, who cooks for her two younger brothers and a sister. Viley is a pescetarian — a vegetarian who eats fish. All three siblings are committed meat lovers, but one won't eat pork; another eats beef but no chicken. The third rejects cheese.

— Alicia Chang, "More obstacles to family togetherness at the dinner table: new diets and picky eaters," The Associated Press, September 9, 2003

First, you need to know what type of vegetarian she is. The most well known categories include: vegans, who avoid all foods of animal origin; lactoovo-vegetarians, who eat eggs and dairy; and ovo-vegetarians, who eat eggs but avoid dairy.

In my research, I have come across other interesting and creative categories, such as pescetarians, who permit themselves fish, and semi-vegetarians, who eat less meat than the average person. Whether these groups should really call themselves vegetarians is somewhat suspect. I have never met a fruitarian, but apparently these are people who subsist on a diet limited to fruit and vegetables.

— Susan Biali, "Vegetarianism: perks and pitfalls," Medical Post, June 26, 2001

Dr Alexander Macnair (Weekend Letters, March 13) states that "butter and beef mountains are the consequences of ill-informed health educators inveighing against meat and animal fat in the diet", which assumes that the Common Agricultural Policy has had little effect.

He goes on to say there is no known "cause and effect relationship" between meat in the diet and diseases such as colon cancer. This is true but then the pathology of lung cancer and Aids has also not yet been fully revealed. He should note that intestinal diverticulitis is almost unknown in vegetarians and pescetarians.

— Gordon Joly, "Weekend letter: Alexander Macnair," The Guardian, March 20, 1993

The alternate spelling piscetarian for this vegetarian-with-an-exception is seen only rarely in the written record which is a shame since it makes a bit more sense etymologically as a blend of pisces (Latin for fish) and vegetarian. The prefix pesce- probably comes from the Italian word pesce, fish, and is used from time to time to create new fish-related words. For example, I've seen pescevino (2001), a wine that goes with fish, and pescephobe (1999), a person who dislikes eating or is scared to eat fish.

A synonym for pescetarian is fishetarian, which dates to about 1992:

"Vegans aren't really political," says Dr Alan Long, a vegan for 20 years. We were sitting in the barn waiting for the How To Relate To Omnivores lecture to begin. "It's like vegetarianism, it's a broad church. People often come to it in stages.

"I know vegetarians who eat fish — I call them fishetarians — and vegetarians who eat eggs and milk — I call them lacto/ovos or 'lovies'."

— Isabel Wolff, "Out to lunch with vegetarians who have gone the whole hog," Daily Mail (London), August 18, 1992