animal

Forms

animal n (plural animale); as an adjective, animal m or n (feminine singular animală, masculine plural animali, feminine and neuter plural animale)^[1] Under the influence of vită “cattle”, a feminine animală was also used for the noun.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin animal (“living being, animal”), a learned borrowing, later reinforced by French animal.^{[3][2][4][5][1]} Ciorănescu and the DA take the noun straight from French, Tiktin from animālis (“living, animate”).^[6][2][7] The adjective has the same French and Latin sources.^[4][3] In Latin the noun is the neuter of that adjective, made a noun, and the adjective is formed on anima (“breath of life, soul”).^[3][8]

The same Latin word, in its plural animālia, gave the inherited nămaie “sheep, small cattle”, an etymological doublet of the learned word.^{[9][2][1][10]}

Earliest recorded meaning

DELR and Tiktin find the first record in 1800, in a work of Piuariu-Molnar, as a noun for any living being that can feel and move.^[3][7] MDA2 cites it from Polizu's dictionary of 1857.^[5]

Semantic evolution

Negulici's dictionary of neologisms (1848) glosses the word as “everything living”, with the native dobitoc “beast” beside it, and also lists the adjective “purely material”.^[11] Beside the scientific sense, any living being with sense and movement, the noun was narrowed to an animal other than man, and figuratively used as an insult for a brutish, coarse person.^[3][4][2] In slang it can also mean a beautiful woman.^[12]

The adjective, “of animals, animal-like”, is recorded from 1836, in phrases such as regnul animal “the animal kingdom” and căldură animală “body heat”.^[3][4][2]

Timeline

• 1800 – animal “living being”, in Piuariu-Molnar, the first record.^[3][7]
• c. 1832 – animalitate and animaliza, from French, in I. Golescu.^[3]
• 1836 – the adjective animal “of animals”.^[3]
• 1842 – animalic “animal, animal-like”.^[3]
• 1848 – animal in Negulici's dictionary of neologisms.^[11]
• 1857 – animal in Polizu's dictionary, MDA2's first record.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. An animal: a living organism, of one cell or many, able to feel and to move; in a narrower sense, a beast, a dobitoc.^[4][5][1]
2. (figurative) A brutal, coarse, base person who behaves like a beast.^[4][5]
3. (slang) A beautiful woman.^[12]

Adjective

1. Of or belonging to animals, proper to them: grăsimi animale “animal fats”.^[4][5][1]
2. Of organic origin: cărbune animal “animal charcoal”.^[4]

Word family

• animalic

Related words

• nămaie
• animalitate
• animaliza
• animalier
• Latin animal

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Academia Română (1913–1949), Dicționarul limbii române (DA), ed. Sextil Pușcariu, tom I (A–B, C, D–De) and tom II (F–I, J–Lojniță), București: Socec / Universul / Monitorul Oficial și Imprimeriile Statului; page scans at cflr-scans.solirom.ro, p. s.v. animal
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2011–), Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române (DELR), vol. I: A–B (2011), vol. II: C (2015–2018), București: Editura Academiei Române; continued online at delr.lingv.ro, p. s.v. animal
4. ^ a b c d e f g h DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 44
5. ^ a b c d e f Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 66
6. ^ Ciorănescu, Alexandru (1958–1966), Diccionario etimológico rumano, La Laguna: Universidad de La Laguna (Romanian ed.: Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române, București: Saeculum, 2001), p. s.v. animal
7. ^ a b c Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. animal
8. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ Ciorănescu, Alexandru (1958–1966), Diccionario etimológico rumano, La Laguna: Universidad de La Laguna (Romanian ed.: Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române, București: Saeculum, 2001), p. s.v. nămaie
10. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 476
11. ^ a b Negulici, I. D. (1848), Vocabular romînesc de toate vorbele streine întroduse pînă acum în limba romînească și de toate cuvintele ce s-ar mai putea introduce încă, București, p. s.v. animal
12. ^ a b Volceanov, George (2007), Dicționar de argou al limbii române, București: Niculescu, p. s.v. animal