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Looking for a single noun to title a funeral picture board where photos show the subject dancing, eating, drinking, reading, and laughing. I want to portray this man's love of life. Other photo board titles include athlete, jester, friend, so I would like a parallel part of speech (a noun).
I found "biophile", but it just sounds so clinical. Any help is appreciated. My dearly departed was truly a lover of the English language.
Looking for a single noun ...
I'm sorry to be borrowing from French, here, but bon vivant (literally “one who lives well, good ‘liver’ (living person)”), from bon (“good”) + vivant (“person who is living”), agent noun of vivre (“to live”), is better than any English term I can think of, though it can come across as pretentious-sounding.
bon vivant (plural bons vivants)
1. a person who enjoys the good things in life, especially good food and drink; a man about town. see, Wiktionary "bon vivant"
Additional caveat: "biophile" is also a term employed by "deep or radical ecologists" to mean: one who extends moral consideration to all that is alive, rather than to, say, just Homo sapiens (philanthropist or anthropophile).
Late edit; a great noun plus its adjectival form,
Convivialist noun: A person of convivial habits. See, Wiktionary “convivialist”
Convivial adjective: (of an atmosphere or event) friendly, lively, and enjoyable. • (of a person) cheerful and friendly; jovial.
synonyms: friendly, genial, affable, amiable, congenial, agreeable, good-humored, cordial, warm, sociable, outgoing, gregarious, companionable, clubby, hail-fellow-well-met, cheerful, jolly, jovial, lively. See, Google.com “convivial”
On a personal note, Lisa, I'd just like to pass along my condolences.
Unless you absolutely need a single word, use "lover of life".
"Biophile" won't be a familiar word (and that matters in this context, since I expect you aren't trying to challenge your readers' vocabulary). And I rather think that English-speakers will interpret the bio- prefix more closely to "biology" than "biography". That is to say they'll take it to mean a lover of the natural world and living things in general, rather than a lover of one's own life specifically and the act of living it.
This is not to say that your loved one didn't love living things, it's just not what you're depicting here and so I don't think it would be an effective caption.
If you really want to stick to a single word noun and want it to be understood by people, you can consider life-lover.
I wish I knew what people mean when they say they find "emptiness" in this wonderful adventure of living... I'm afraid I'm an incorrigible life-lover and life-wonderer and adventurer. —Edith Wharton
The common phrases to express the enjoyment of life are joie de vivre and full of life.
Wile it is often used in reference to a particular pursuit, you might consider the label enthusiast (hinted at in the answer by @sojourner.)
One who is filled with enthusiasm; one who is ardently absorbed in an interest or pursuit: a baseball enthusiast.
American Heritage
It is clear your friend had enthusiasm about a number of things. If they are depicted, the label should convey his passion for each, and perhaps suggest that it extended to other things not depicted.
Epicurean is the word for a person who enjoys pursuing sensuous pleasures
I'll come from a slightly different angle;
Rapture
a feeling of intense pleasure or joy.
It doesn't describe the pursuit of these activities, but rather the emotion generated from doing them.
Biophile is the wrong word (that’s a lover of living things, and life is not a living thing (in the relevant sense)). I’m sure this answer’s far too late, and so I share this solely for its intrinsic interest. (Also, I have no illusions that this would have been an appropriate word to share with a room of non-literati. I just think there should be a word for this too.) The Greek for ‘life’ is zeta-omega-eta (like ‘zoi’), so you could coin the word (if you don’t like the English compound ‘lover of life’). It would be (perhaps) ‘zoiphile’. But that looks too much like ‘zoophile’, which is redolent of biophile again (and that one’s related fetishes...). So coin it in reverse, like ‘philososphy’, where zeta-omega-eta appears at the end. And I don’t know how to construct that. :)
