mycophile

Etymology

From myco- + -phile.

mycophile means A person who likes hunting for, cooking or eating mushrooms and other edible fungi. Lexicurio rates it Sui generis — a strength score of 87 out of 100.

Why this word is great

MYCOPHILE — [Noun] A person with a passionate, often devotional enthusiasm for mushrooms and other fungi, typically as a hobbyist forager or connoisseur. Formed within English by compounding the combining form myco- (from Greek mykēs, meaning "fungus, mushroom") and the suffix -phile (from Greek philos, meaning "loving, dear"). Unlike a "mycologist" (whose study is a formal science of taxonomy and laboratory) or a "forager" (who hunts all manner of wild provender with pragmatic intent), the mycophile is driven by a lover's ardor for the fungal kingdom itself. It is the careful thumb brushing loam from a chanterelle's apricot-scented gills, the patient reverence of tracing a finger over the velvet damp of a turkey tail's concentric rainbows, and the quiet, shared warmth of a basket handle growing heavy with a damp, earthy haul. To be a mycophile is to find kinship in life forms that are fundamentally, beautifully alien, a gentle reminder that the most profound discoveries often grow in the dark, just out of sight.

noun

A person who likes hunting for, cooking or eating mushrooms and other edible fungi.“Mycophobe or closet mycophile? It isn't always easy to tell the difference.”