eatieWe're just a couple days into the new year and there's already a new food word for 2012: "Eatie." It was coined by Rachael Ray when she was talking about Cheech Marin and Lou Diamond Phillips competing on her new show, Rachael vs. Guy: Celebrity Cook-Off: "Going in, I knew that Cheech and LDP were good cooks, but a lot of them just wanted to become better at working with food and consider themselves foodies because they are eaties, they eat a lot."

So there you go: An "eatie" is someone who eats a lot. And if you're an eatie, you may consider yourself a "foodie" -- but apparently they're not exactly the same thing. I don't know. Do we really need this word, "eatie," in our vocabulary right now? I'm thinking NO.

It's not exactly a compliment, this "eatie." Unless you're a child, if you "eat a lot," you probably "eat too much." Know what I mean? "Oh Marvin, you and your two-foot-long subs for lunch. You're such an EATIE!" Oof, I wouldn't want to be called an eatie. We already have a word for that: "Over-eater." And doctors are worried about them.

Or maybe by "eats a lot," Rachael means "eats regular meals." But that just makes the word completely meaningless. I mean, unless you're starving yourself, pretty much all of us are "eaties." Does she mean people who enjoy eating? It sounds like "foodie" is what Rachael meant in the first place.

Well not exactly -- most people who are passionate about food hate the word foodie. It's considered pretentious. So I guess an eatie is someone who loves eating but doesn't want to come across as snooty. The eatie is that hipster who gets mad at you if you call him a foodie. Which is also annoying. Boy do I get tired of hearing people who I KNOW love food say, "I'm not a foodie!" It's like the new food-snobism. And so there we go -- we finally came up with a word that's even more annoying than "foodie." Sure hope this word doesn't catch on. 

Would you consider yourself an "eatie"?

 

Image via hill.josh/Flickr