A.Word.A.Day -- AWADmail Issue 1129

Human-handed, adj.: A term used by octopuses to describe a tendency to attempt to force complex situations into binaries such as right/wrong, left/right, female/male, etc. Arises from the belief that humans resort to such binaries to deal with the world around them because they only have two hands. Example: Asdfghjkl’s human-handed approach rendered them unfit to deal with delicate political negotiations.
-SarahRose Werner, Saint John, Canada (swerner nbnet.nb.ca)

humanitarian, adj.: Selfishly only caring about other humans within the same group.
Unfortunately, we humans show little evidence that we care either about humans who are different from us or about animals.
-B.J. Woodstein, Norwich, UK (bjepstein gmail.com)

Would elephants create trumpian as their version of the word reptilian?
-John Chamberlin, Falls Church, Virginia (jbcblues gmail.com)

Humanic, adj.: Destructive.
Example: That woodchuck is so profligate in his digging, he is almost humanic.
-Stephen Wilder, Willow, New York (bushwhackinfool gmail.com)

Humaniac, noun: A two-legged creature unable to limit their obsessive need to violently control other living beings.
-James S. Webster, Berkeley, California (jsibleywebster mindspring.com)

Prosopicentric, adj.: Considering those with faces as the most significant.
Abattoirian, adj.: Favoring ultimate submission and abnegation of life towards the end of feeding a dominant species.
-Nicole Crane, Guilford, Connecticut (nicole.crane gmail.com)

Googoon, noun: A human being who speaks to dogs, cats or other animals in exaggerated nonsense syllables or “baby talk”.
Usage: “The human with whom I cohabitate seems resourceful in providing food and shelter, despite a severely limited vocabulary. I wonder if other humans also consider him a bit of a googoon.”
-Jonathan Harms, St. Louis, Missouri (jonathan.harms slu.edu)

Mardigrasian, noun: A person who abandons him or herself to reckless frivolity, often costumed and drunken, redeemed paradoxically for many humans by the fact that their celebration is derived from a religious holiday.
Usage: A bad lizard can do evil, but it takes religion to make a good human mardigrasian.
-Leslie Lowe, New Orleans, Louisiana (leslie leslie.ms)

Although we humans can read and write -- that is, we are literate -- we also have a knack for rambling lunacy. The animal kingdom might consider us blitherates.
-Jerry Bradley, Springfield, Virginia (fxb3 verizon.net)

Amongst many mammals, humans are commonly known as smoke monkeys -- not only for their smoldering cigarettes but also for their house chimneys, vehicle exhausts, and noxious factory emissions. Other simians, however, simply refer to people as stinkers. “Uh-oh! Look out! Stinkers coming near!”
-Tom Pater, Courtenay, Canada (tompater shaw.ca)

Taillessi: Monkeys would call our species a particularly clumsy and inept cousin.
-Michael Tuvim, PhD, Professor, Pulmonary Medicine, Director, Pulmonary Research Laboratory, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas (mtuvim mdanderson.org)

My choice for a word coined by animals to describe humans: inhumanoids.
-Sara Hutchinson, New Castle, Delaware (sarahutch2003 yahoo.com)

Animals would characterize humans with out-of-control emotions who go about destroying each other and the environment as manick (man-ick).
-Steve Benko, New York, New York (stevebenko1 gmail.com)

When our daughter was younger, she told us in no uncertain terms that her cat, Isis, did not have a personality, because she wasn’t a person. She was a CAT so she had a CATonality (or possibly CATanality. And Isis, being quite the unique individual, had a very distinct catonality. We suggested perhaps felinality or catality would work better but were overruled by our daughter and Isis.
-Kate Cook, Yorkville, California (kborst mcn.org)

Anthrotrocious, adj.: Tending to subject one’s fellow non-human animals to undue suffering through exploitation that includes factory farming, animal experimentation, zoos, circuses, use in clothing and food, etc. Example: Joey the Antelope’s father told him to leave the small human child in peace and to instead eat the grass around them. He said,
“Joey, don’t be anthrotrocious! You know better.”
-Rizwati Lazarus, Los Angeles, California (rizwati1111 proton.me)

If I were an animal, and had to create only one word for a human, it would be humass. Regardless of whether the animal is domesticated or wild, there are so many sad tales of woe involving the cruelty, abuse, and negligence of pets and wildlife. We as humans have hunted wild and exotic animals for sport. We’ve placed them in zoos or made them into circus animals. We force horses and dogs to run around race tracks, sometimes giving them drugs to enhance performance or still running them with injuries only to shoot them when they lose or become too expensive.
-Ronda Rose, Reno, Nevada (rcallahanrose19 gmail.com)