manducatev.

Etymology: < classical Latin mandūcāt-, past participial stem (compare -ate suffix³) of mandūcāre to chew, to eat < mandūcus masked figure with champing jaws < mandere to chew, bite, champ the bit, perhaps cognate with ancient Greek μασᾶσθαι to chew, and perhaps also with Old Icelandic mél bit (see meldrop n.). With the termination of mandūcus compare cadūcus (see caducous adj.).From the end of the Republic, classical Latin edere was replaced, at first in comedy, satire and informal speech and then more generally, by mandūcāre, which was not only a more vivid word but also grammatically more regular; comedere was retained as a literary word. In the Vulgate translation of the New Testament, mandūcāre is used several times (e.g. Luke 22:15, John 13:18) to render words spoken by Christ at the Last Supper, hence its importance in 17th-cent. and later polemic.