Etymologically
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beast

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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
  • 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