'non-' originates from Latin 'non' meaning 'not' + 'anthropophagic' from Greek elements 'anthropos' and 'phagein' (via New Latin), where 'anthropos' meant 'human' and 'phagein' meant 'to eat'.

'anthropophagy' comes from Greek 'anthrōpophagía' (Ἀνθρωποφαγία) meaning 'the eating of humans'; it passed into Medieval and New Latin as 'anthropophagia'/'anthropophagy' and produced the adjective form 'anthropophagic'; the negative form 'non-anthropophagic' is formed by the Latin negative prefix 'non-'.

Initially it denoted the act or practice of eating humans; the core meaning has remained stable, while the adjective and negative prefixed forms (e.g., 'non-anthropophagic') specifically describe absence of that behavior.