'Predator' is to 'Predatory' as 'Prey' is to...?

I'm trying to find a word like 'predatory' that refers to prey instead.

Looking through some physical books gave some information about the root word 'praedor', for which I found this Wikitionary page. A quick search on Merriam-Webster only returned some near-antonyms for 'predatory':

herbivorous, vegetarian; gentle, submissive, tame

None of these words really capture what I'm after. I'm trying to catch more of the behavioural side of prey, but I want to use this word almost like a quality for a human.

Example sentences of how I would like this word used;

1. "Jack had been noted for his ... tendencies."
2. "Rabbits are mammals of a ... nature, [...]"

Thanks in advance.

Solution 1:

preyed-on or preyed-upon (adjective)

Oxford online dictionaries

That is preyed upon; subject to predation; exploited or persecuted.

Google Ngrams

A Google books search for 'preyed-upon' and 'preyed-on' shows the prevalence of 'preyed-upon' in literature including:

Animal Life: Secrets of the Animal World Revealed

Animal Nature and Human Nature

Firestar

MOTIVATION

Forest and Bird, Issues 47-90

Dillie the Deer: A True Story of Love, Healing, and Family

Theories of Human Learning: What the Professor Said

Human Infancy: An Evolutionary Perspective

Consider the Earth: Environmental Activities for Grades 4 - 8: Environmental ...

Made for Life (PLE: Emotion): Coping, Competence and Cognition

The Ancient Origins of Consciousness: How the Brain Created Experience

Extinct Madagascar: Picturing the Island's Past

Mountains of Hope

Philip Roth: Fiction and Power

A Season of Fire and Ice

Best American Humor 1994

Sword of the Highlands

Metaphor and Gender in Business Media Discourse: A Critical Cognitive Study

The Illustrated Library of the Natural Sciences, Volume 3

Solution 2:

Predator is to predatory as prey is to preyed upon. This is a passive, "receiving" construction. Rabbits have a nature to be preyed upon.

In the case of a person, Jack was noted for his tendency to be bullied. That's another "receiving" construction in the passive voice.

Solution 3:

In Latin, prædātōrius:prædātor::prædātus:prædātīcius/prædātītius.

Words prædātor and prædātus are antonyms.

Corresponding adjectives are prædātōrius and prædātīcius.

Therefore English antonym to predatory should be predaticious/predatitious (Latin meaning “taken as booty or plunder” per Lewis & Short).

Suffix -itious/-icious means “having the nature of”. From this, we can confirm the meaning of predaticious/predatitious as “having the character of the predated (preyed upon)”.

(Sources: Dictionary.com, The Free Dictionary, Merriam-Webster.)

An excited predator might exclaim: “Mhmhm... This prey looks very predaticious!”

However, the only two authors to ever use this word in English (bishop John Gauden and gardener John Evelyn) have used it incorrectly as a synonym (rather than antonym) of the word predatory. You have an opportunity to fix their historical mistake.

There is also an English word predacious/predaceous. Again, it is used as a synonym (rather than antonym) of the word predatory. Again, the correctness of this usage can be questioned: Latin word prædātiōsus/prædāciōsus is not attested. If it existed, it would mean something to the effect of “plundersome” – hard to say whether a synonym or antonym. Whereas Latin word prædātius/prædācius means “more predated” (comparative degree of praedātus).

For a more common word, I would settle for submissive or gullible. How about furtive? A prey aware of being a target may behave furtively. Furtive behaviour defines a prey.

Attestations

1. John Gauden, Bp., “A sermon preached (...) at the funeral of (...) dr. Brounrig” (1660, London):

Not predaticious to any, but propitious to all true Saints.

2. John Evelyn, “A Discourse of Forest-trees and the Propagation of Timber” (1679 Third Edition, possibly also 1662 paper):

It is not good to water new-ſown Seeds immediately, (...) be ſure to purge them of predaticious Weeds betimes.

Provided no rank Weeds, or predatitious Plants (conſummating their Seeds) be ſuffered to grow and exhauſt it.

Also compare this passage:

But the ſhade of the Aſh is not to be endur’d, becauſe it produces a noxious Inſect; and for diſplaying themſelves ſo very late, and falling very early, not to be planted for Umbrage or Ornament; eſpecially near the Garden, ſince (beſides their predatitious Roots) the deciduous leaves dropping with ſo long a Stalk, are drawn by cluſters into the Worm holes, which foul the Allies with their falling Keys, and ſuddenly infect the ground.

with corresponding passage in John Mortimer’s anthology “The Whole Art of Husbandry” (1721):

But the ſhade of the Aſh is not to be endured, becauſe it produces a noxious Inſect; and becauſe of the late Budding, and early falling of the Leaves, and therefore ’tis not to be planted for Walks or Ornaments, eſpecially near Gardens, because of their ſpreading Roots and falling Leaves, both which are prejudicial to them.

This change clearly shows the intended meaning of “predatitious” as “predatory” (expansive, “spreading”) and possibly acknowledges it as an error.

3. John Evelyn, “Elysium Britannicum, Or the Royal Gardens” (unpublished manuscript until 1998 edition by Therese O'Malley, Joachim Wolschke-Bulmahn, and 2001 edition by John E. Ingram):

And yet I remember Columella (...) is not for a total extermination even of those laizy & predatitious Bees, (...) least the labourious Bees should grow idle.

4. Oxford English Dictionary (article behind paywall):

5. Aulus Gellius, “Attic Nights” (book 13, chapter XXV, section 28):

Itaque hæc inscriptio quam videtis: ‘Ex manubiis,’ non res corporaque ipsa prædæ demonstrat, nihil enim captum est horum a Traiano ex hostibus, sed facta esse hæc conparataque ‘ex manubiis,’ id est ex pecunia prædaticia, declarat.

My translation:

Therefore this inscription which you see: ‘From the spoils,’ does not demonstrate the things and the matter of the prey (loot) itself. For none of these were taken from the enemy by Trajan. It only declares that they were made and bought ‘from the spoils,’ i.e. from predaticious money.