A 'flexitarian' is an emerging term that is used to describe someone who, while eating mostly non-meat products, is willing to eat meat and fish products in moderation.

I apparently am not alone in considering the word "omnivore" to be perfectly sufficient in describing someone who, you know, eats both meat and vegetables, although I can see the benefits in reducing the amount of meat and increasing the amount of vegetables one consumes in their diet.

The American Dialect Association does disagree with this point, as they voted the word "flexitarian" as the most useful new word of 2003. This is, however, the same association that decided that the Word of the Year for 2003 was "Metrosexual", which I still contend sounds like someone who has sex in subway tunnels. Therefore their opinion can be considered suspect.

If you're a meat eater who occasionally has steamed broccoli with your steaming slab of cow, however, flexitarianism may give you a fairly fashionable bandwagon to join in on.

Log in or register to write something here or to contact authors.