- animal (n.)
- late 14c. (but rare before end of 16c., and not in K.J.V.), from L. animale "living being, being which breathes," neut. of animalis "living, of air," from anima "breath, soul" (see animus). Drove out the older beast in common usage. Used of brutish humans from 1580s. As an adj., attested from 1540s; animal rights is attested from 1879; animal liberation from 1973. Animal magnetism originally (1784) referred to mesmerism (q.v.). Animalism "the doctrine that man is a mere animal" is from 1857.