beast

Pronunciation

• IPA: /biːst/^[1]

Etymology

It is Middle English beste, borrowed from Old French beste (“animal, wild beast; fool”) (modern French bête),^[2][3][4] from Vulgar Latin *besta,^[2][4][5] from Latin bēstia (“beast, wild animal”),^[2][4][3] a word of unknown or uncertain origin;^[4][2] MWU suggests a link with Lithuanian dvasas (“spirit, breath”).^[6] The older Middle English spelling survives in bestial.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Probably before 1200 in the Ancrene Riwle, in Barnhart;^[2] about 1200 in Etymonline, one of the lower animals as opposed to man, especially a four-footed one, and also a marvellous creature or monster, such as the beast of the Apocalypse.^[4]

Semantic evolution

In Middle English beast translated Latin animal and displaced Old English dēor (see deer) as the general word for a wild creature, only to be ousted itself by animal in the 16th century.^[4][2][3] At first it could include man, but was later restricted to the lower animals.^[5][7] A quadruped as distinct from birds and fish is from about 1230,^[7] an animal of the chase from 1297,^[7] and cattle, now chiefly a bullock or cow, from about 1230.^[7] A brutish or stupid person is in Middle English,^[4] and the animal nature in man, the beast in us, is from 1667, in Milton.^[7] Beastly is probably from about 1200.^[2] The verb, to make a beast of, is rare, from 1646.^[7]

Timeline

• before 1200 – an animal, in the Ancrene Riwle.^[2]
• c. 1230 – a quadruped; cattle.^[7]
• 1297 – a beast of the chase.^[7]
• 1646 – the verb.^[7]
• 1667 – man's animal nature.^[7]
• 16th century – displaced by animal.^[4][2]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. An animal other than a human, especially a large four-footed mammal.
2. A large domestic animal, such as a horse or a head of cattle.
3. The animal side of human nature, as opposed to intellect or spirit.
4. A cruel, coarse or contemptible person.

Word family

• beastlike
• beastie
• beastly
• beast fable
• king of beasts
• mark of the beast

Related words

• bestial
• bestiality
• bestiary
• hartebeest
• wildebeest
• deer
• animal

References

1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press