Where does “animal” come from?
Animal comes from Latin animalis, derived from Latin animus, meaning "spirit" or "soul," which came to denote a living creature.
animal (English): A multicellular organism that is usually mobile,...
Definitions
- A multicellular organism that is usually mobile,...
Ancestry of “animal”, step by step
animal traces back through two separate lines of ancestry.
via French animal
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | French | animal | animal |
| 2 | Italian | animale | animal; beast |
| 3 | Spanish | animal | animal |
| 4 | Latin | animal | animal; living creature |
| 5 | Latin | animālis | animate, living |
| 6 | Latin | anima | soul, spirit, life; air, breeze; breath |
| 7 | Latin | animus | That life-giving aspect which animates: life... |
| 8 | Proto-Italic | anamos | breath; spirit, soul, life force |
| 9 | Proto-Indo-European | h₂enh₁mos | breath |
| 10 | Proto-Indo-European | h₂enh₁- | to breathe |