animal

Pronunciation

• IPA (Classical): [ˈa.nɪ.maɫ]^[1]
• IPA (Ecclesiastical): [ˈaː.ni.mal]^[1]

Forms

animal n (genitive animālis); third declension^[1]

Etymology

It is the neuter of animālis “living, breathing”, used as a noun, from anima “breath, soul”.^[2][1][3] The base goes back to Proto-Indo-European *h₂enh₁- (“to breathe”).^[1][3]

Lewis and Short and Georges note the full form animāle, which is found in Lucretius.^[4][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler dates it from Cicero (81–43 BC),^[6] who says the great difference between a living and a lifeless thing is that a living being acts.^[7][5]

Semantic evolution

It meant any living creature, including man, as Varro's animals of the land, and more often a beast as opposed to man, as Caesar's captured animals sacrificed by the Gauls.^[2] Animal parere was “to bear live young” rather than lay eggs.^[2]

As a term of abuse it meant a brute or monster, as Cicero's “so faithless a creature”.^[2] Philosophers applied it to the world as a living being.^[2] In Medieval Latin it often meant a domestic animal, cattle or a post horse.^[6] English animal was borrowed in the early 14th century.^[3]

Timeline

• 116–27 BC – Varro uses it of land animals.^[2][6]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of living beings and as a term of abuse.^[2][6]
• c. 50 BC – Caesar uses it of sacrificial animals.^[2][6]
• early 14th century – English animal is recorded.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. A living being, creature.^[2][1]
2. An animal, beast (as opposed to man).^[2][1]
3. animal parere: to be viviparous.^[2]
4. (contemptuous) A brute, monster.^[2]
5. (philosophy) A living thing (of the world).^[2]
6. (Medieval Latin) A domestic animal; cattle.^[6]

Word family

• inanimālis

Related words

• anima
• animō
• animus
• English animal

Usage notes

Döderlein distinguishes animal, a living being by its nature, from animans, one still breathing, and both from bestia and belua, the brute beast.^[8]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
6. ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
7. ^ Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
8. ^ Döderlein, Ludwig (1874), Döderlein’s Hand-book of Latin Synonymes, tr. H. H. Arnold, Andover: W. F. Draper