Flexitarianism is the way of eating, not the person. (The person is a flexitarian.) It means most of your food comes from plants — vegetables, fruit, beans, grains — but you still allow meat or fish sometimes. The -ism makes it sound like a belief, and some people do talk about it as a choice for health or for the planet. Others just mean “I mostly eat vegetables.” There is no shared rulebook. One kitchen’s flexitarianism is “meat on Sundays”; another’s is “I’ll eat it if it’s already on the table.” Though actually, the word can sound grander than the plate. It names a middle path: more plants, without a forever promise. The pieces are flexible + vegetarian + -ism. The earliest known use is 17 October 1992, in the Austin American-Statesman, in Linda Anthony’s piece about a restaurant serving ‘flexitarian fare’.

彈性素食（主義）；指這種吃法，不是指那個人