Other forms: animals
An animal is a living creature that moves about and is not a plant. A wild animal, animal welfare, farm animals.
Biologically we are animals too, which is why careful writing says non-human animals when it means the rest. The word comes from the Latin for breath, since breathing was taken to be the sign of a living soul.
1nounanimalA living creature that moves about and is not a plant.
“Our farm has lots of animals, including cows, pigs and chickens.”
animal is a creature.
Latin animal comes from anima, breath or soul. To be an animal was to be a breathing thing.
Proto-Indo-European
*h₂enh₁-
Middle English
animal
English, today
animal
Built from
From Middle English animal. From Middle English animal, from Old French animal, from Latin animal, a nominal use of the adjective form animāle, neuter of animālis, from anima (“breath, spirit”). Displaced native deer (outside puristic usage) in the general animal sense, from der,deor, from Old English dēor, related to Tier, dier, dyr, djur etc. Displaced also rother#Noun (“horned animal, esp. ox”), from rother,reother, from Old English hrīþer,hrȳþer.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA