Why “geophagism” is a great word
GEOPHAGISM — [Noun] The deliberate practice of consuming earth or soil. Formed within English by compounding, from the combining form geo- (from Greek gē, meaning 'earth') and -phagism (from Greek -phagia, from phagein, meaning 'to eat'). Modeled on a French lexical item. First attested in 1828. Unlike geophagy, its more common clinical synonym, or pica, the broader disorder encompassing cravings for starch or ice, geophagism names the stark, singular ritual of earth-eating. It is the cool, gritty paste of river clay on the tongue, the faint scent of iron and humus rising from a swallowed handful, the dense warmth of sun-baked dirt settling in the gut—a primal hunger that bypasses the harvest, turning the eater back into the very ground from which life springs.