manducare

Manducare is a Latin verb meaning to chew, to eat, or to devour. It belongs to the first conjugation, with the infinitive manducāre and the present stem manduc-. In classical Latin it describes the physical act of chewing or consuming food and appears in medical, culinary, and literary texts.

The word originates from the Latin root manduc-, and is the source of a small set of English loanwords: manducate, manducation, and manducatory, though these are rarely used outside linguistic or antiquarian contexts.

In modern scholarship, manducare is mainly encountered in discussions of Latin language or historical texts; in everyday Latin, more common terms for "to eat" include comedere or edere. In English, manducate is archaic or humorous, and manducation is especially rare; manducatory appears in dental or anatomical discussions.