Etymologically
Log in

bestial

History Permalink

Etymology and origin of the English word bestial

Pronunciation

  • UK: /ˈbɛs.ti.əl/[1]
  • US: /ˈbɛs.t͡ʃəl/, /ˈbis.t͡ʃəl/[1]

bestial1 livestock

Confidence
Established
Formation
Borrowing
First attested
c. 1350 Earliest Complete English Prose Psalter
Borrowed from
Anglo-Norman bestaile via Middle English
Ultimate origin
Latin bēstia

Etymology

The word for livestock is inherited from Middle English bestaile, also bestial,[2][3] borrowed from Anglo-Norman bestaile, also Old French bestaille and bestail,[4][5] now French bétail.[4][6] The Anglo-Norman noun is recorded from the second half of the 13th century, for cattle and draught animals.[7] The OED derives the French word from beste and its source Latin bēstia (“animal, wild animal”), with the ending -aille after aumaille (“large livestock”).[4] Merriam-Webster Unabridged and the Shorter Oxford instead trace it to Medieval Latin bestialia, the neuter plural of Late Latin bēstiālis.[3][5] The later Middle English form comes partly from Old French bestiall (“livestock, cattle”), which is partly a variant of bestiaille and partly a noun use of the French adjective.[4] Compare Old Occitan bestial (“cattle, livestock”).[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Livestock, or animals in general: about 1350, as bestaile, in a Middle English psalter, translating Latin armentum: “No bestaile ne shal be in cracches”.[2][4] Merriam-Webster Unabridged dates the word to the 13th century.[3]

Semantic evolution

The word first covered animals collectively, wild as well as domesticated, a use now obsolete,[4] and could include draught animals;[2] Gower uses it twice, for livestock.[8] From about 1400 it could also mean a single animal, chiefly in the plural, a use now rare.[4] The Shorter Oxford calls the noun long obsolete except in Scots.[5] Wright's dialect dictionary records it in Scotland for the live stock on a farm, quoting Scott: “Skeely enow in bestial”.[9]

Timeline

  • c. 1350 – domesticated animals collectively, livestock, cattle.[4][2]
  • c. 1400 – a single animal, in the early version of the Wycliffite Bible.[4]

Meanings

Noun

  1. (Scottish) Domestic animals, especially cattle; livestock.[3][5][9]
  2. (rare) A single domestic animal.[3][4]

bestial2 of or like a beast

Confidence
Established
Formation
Borrowing
First attested
1393 before 1393, Gower, Confessio Amantis
Borrowed from
Old French bestial via Middle English
Ultimate origin
Latin bēstia

Etymology

The word meaning “of or like a beast” is inherited from Middle English bestial,[2][4] borrowed from Old French bestial and directly borrowed from Late Latin bēstiālis (“of a beast, like a beast, wild, fierce”),[4][10][11][2] from Latin bēstia (“beast, wild animal”), the source of beast,[4][12][13] and -ālis.[4][3] The American Heritage Dictionary, the Shorter Oxford and the Oxford Dictionary of English give the route through French alone.[12][5][14] The Old French adjective is recorded from the late 12th century, already meaning animal in nature and brutish;[4][7] the Latin one from the 4th century.[4] The origin of the Latin noun is unknown,[10] or uncertain.[11] Compare Catalan bestial, Spanish bestial, Portuguese bestial and Italian bestiale.[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Of an animal, as opposed to a human: before 1393, in Gower's Confessio Amantis: “To take a mannes herte aweie And sette there a bestial”.[4][2][11] Etymonline gives the late 14th century.[10]

Semantic evolution

Within a few years the word was used in Trevisa's translation of Bartholomaeus Anglicus (before 1398) both for the bodily functions and impulses that humans share with animals, as against the soul and reason,[4][2] and for what is brutish or depraved.[4] The first of these uses ended in the 17th century, the last record being from 1654,[4] while the sense of lacking reason survives but is now rare.[4] Etymonline dates “below the dignity of a human” from about 1400, and remarks that it is often unjust to beasts.[10] Johnson (1755) gave two senses: belonging to a beast, and having the qualities of beasts, “brutal; below the dignity of reason or humanity; carnal”, quoting Othello and Richard III.[15] In the 1650s bestian was sometimes used instead when the beast of the Book of Revelation was meant.[10] From the 1780s the bestial appears as a noun, first for the animal nature in a person and then for brutish people as a group.[4]

Timeline

  • before 1393 – of or relating to animals, animal in kind.[4][2][11]
  • before 1398 – of the bodily functions and impulses shared by humans and animals (obsolete by 1654).[4][2]
  • before 1398 – lacking reason, brutish; base or depraved, cruel, lustful.[4] Etymonline gives about 1400.[10]
  • 1785 – noun, with the, the animal nature in a person.[4]
  • 1793 – noun, with the, bestial people as a group.[4]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. Of or like a beast: a bestial snarl.[12][3][16]
  2. Brutal or savage; marked by depravity: the bestial cruelty of the guards.[12][16][4]
  3. Sexually depraved; carnal.[16][4]
  4. (rare) Lacking reason or intelligence; brutish.[4][3][16]
  5. (obsolete, 1398–1654) Of the bodily functions and impulses shared by humans and animals.[4][2]

Noun

  1. With the: the animal nature in a person.[4]

Word family

  • bestially
  • bestiality
  • bestialize

Usage notes

A third noun bestial, recorded in 1488, in Hary's Wallace, meant a wooden siege tower; the OED takes it as apparently an alteration of or an error for bastille, perhaps confused with the word for livestock.[4] Merriam-Webster Unabridged notes that British speakers usually, and some American ones, say the adjective as /ˈbest-yəl/ or /ˈbē-stē-əl/ rather than /ˈbes-chəl/.[3]

References

  1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  5. ^ a b c d e Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  6. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
  7. ^ a b Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
  8. ^ Benson, Larry D., Glossarial Concordance to Middle English (Chaucer, Gower), Johns Hopkins University, github.com/jhu-digital-manuscripts/gcme
  9. ^ a b Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
  10. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  11. ^ a b c d Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  12. ^ a b c d The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  13. ^ Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
  14. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  15. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
  16. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins

Related etymologies

Cite this entry

“Bestial.” Etymologically, 7 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/en/bestial. Accessed 7 Nov. 2026.

Last edited on . ·