animal

Forms

animal m (plural animales)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin animal (“living being, animal”), a learned word in Spanish from the 13th century on.^[2][3][1][4] The adjective is borrowed from Latin animālis (“of the breath; animate, living”), and the DLE gives the noun and the adjective as separate headwords, each from its own Latin word.^[3][5] Both go back to one Latin root.^[6][1] Salvá (1846) and the Academy's dictionary of 1869 give the noun and the adjective in one entry.^[7][8]

The Latin noun stands for animāle, the neuter of the adjective, which is formed from Latin anima (“breath, soul”) + -ālis.^[6][9][1] The same root gave alma and the learned ánima and ánimo.^[10][2]

The popular outcome of the Latin plural animālia is alimaña “vermin, predatory animal”, recorded about 1300, with the /n/ and /l/ swapped;^[4][1][11] Wiktionary calls it the inherited doublet of the learned word.^[4][1][11] Popular forms of the same Latin word elsewhere name cattle: French aumaille “cattle”, Romanian nămaie “small livestock”, and Portuguese almalho and Galician almallo “young bull”, from a form *animālium.^{[12][11][13][14]}

Earliest recorded meaning

The earliest hit in the CDH, in a charter of 1225, is the Latin word in a Latin text.^[15] The Libro de los doce sabios (c. 1237, in a copy of about 1400) has the adjective: Castidat es animal amor e obra syn error “chastity is love of the soul and work without error”, in the sense “of the soul, vital”.^[16][15] The noun appears in the Fueros de Aragón of 1247 and in Alfonso X's Lapidario (c. 1250) for any creature that lives, feels and moves by itself: si figado dalgun animal pusieren en un bacin “if they put the liver of some animal in a basin”.^[15][17][18]

Semantic evolution

Alfonso X already sets the animal against man, and has animal manso “domestic animal” and animal salvaje “wild animal”.^[17] Bénaben notes that the Latin word at first included human beings.^[19] The Diccionario de Autoridades (1726) defines it as a body with senses and movement, of which man, the rational animal, is the chief, and also records it as an insult for a coarse, dull person.^[20] The 1884 and 1899 editions of the Academy's dictionary separate the adjective “of the animal” and “of the sensitive, as opposed to the rational, part of a being”.^[21][22]

Colloquial Spanish now also calls animal a person who stands out for strength, knowledge or effort, the opposite of the old insult.^[3] In Mexico and Peru it means a bug or vermin, and other regional senses of the Americas are recorded in the DAMER.^[3][23]

Timeline

• 1225 – a Latin charter of Fernando III has the Latin word animal.^[15]
• c. 1237 – the Libro de los doce sabios uses the adjective (in a copy of about 1400).^[16][15]
• 1247 – the noun in the Fueros de Aragón.^[15][18]
• c. 1250 – Alfonso X's Lapidario uses the noun for any living creature.^[17][15]
• 1251 – the date Corominas gives for the first record.^[2][4]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija gives Latin animans and animal.^[24][25]
• 1726 – the Diccionario de Autoridades records the insult for a coarse person.^[20]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary gives the etymology “from Latin animal”.^[21]

Meanings

Noun

1. An animal: a living organism that feels and moves by its own impulse.^[3][1]
2. An animal other than a human being; a beast.^[3][20]
3. A coarse, ignorant person who acts on instinct; a brute.^[3]
4. (colloquial) A person who stands out for knowledge, intelligence or effort: Es un animal con los números.^[3]
5. (Mexico, Peru) A bug or vermin.^[3][23]

Adjective

1. Of or relating to animals: el reino animal.^[5][26][1]
2. Relating to the sensitive or instinctive part of a being, as opposed to the rational or spiritual.^[5][22]
3. Coarse, brutish, behaving like an animal.^[3]

Word family

• animalada
• animalizar
• animalidad

Related words

• alimaña
• alma
• ánima
• ánimo
• animar
• Latin animal

Usage notes

Animal de bellota is a pig and, colloquially, a rough, dull person.^[3]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. alma
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Real Academia Española; Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2014–), Diccionario de la lengua española, 23rd ed., online version 23.8, https://dle.rae.es, p. s.v. animal
4. ^ a b c d Segura Munguía, Santiago (2001), Nuevo diccionario etimológico latín-español y de las voces derivadas, Bilbao: Universidad de Deusto, p. 43
5. ^ a b c Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. animal
6. ^ a b Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México, p. s.v. animal
7. ^ Salvá, Vicente (1846), Nuevo diccionario de la lengua castellana, París: Librería de Don Vicente Salvá, p. 74
8. ^ Real Academia Española (1869), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 11th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de Don Manuel Rivadeneyra, p. 52
9. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. s.v. animal
10. ^ Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 1, 179
11. ^ a b c Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. s.v. animal
12. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. aumaille
13. ^ Machado, José Pedro (1987), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., 5 vols., Lisboa: Livros Horizonte, p. 200
14. ^ Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. almalho
15. ^ a b c d e f g Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. animal
16. ^ a b Real Academia Española (2021–), Tesoro de los diccionarios históricos de la lengua española (TDHLE): Diccionario histórico (1933–1936), its unpublished slips, Diccionario histórico (1960–1996), DHECan, DHECR, DHEVen, https://www.rae.es/tdhle, p. s.v. animal
17. ^ a b c Kasten, Lloyd A.; Nitti, John J.; Gago Jover, Francisco (2002–), Diccionario de la prosa castellana del Rey Alfonso X, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies (electronic edition 2024), p. s.v. animal
18. ^ a b Real Academia Nacional de Medicina (2011), Diccionario de términos médicos, Madrid: Editorial Médica Panamericana; online at https://dtme.ranm.es, p. s.v. animal
19. ^ Bénaben, Michel (2000), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'espagnol, Paris: Ellipses, p. s.v. animal
20. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 1, 298
21. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 75
22. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 68
23. ^ a b Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. animal
24. ^ Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 293
25. ^ Lleal, Coloma (dir.), DICCA-XV: Diccionario del castellano del siglo XV en la Corona de Aragón, Barcelona: Universitat de Barcelona, Grup d'Estudis d'Història de la Llengua (GHCL), https://ghcl.ub.edu/diccaxv, p. s.v. animal
26. ^ Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. animal