animal

animal, n. and a.
  (ˈænɪməl)
  [a. L. animal a living creature, prop. ‘anything living,’ for animāle, neut. of adj. animāl-is having the breath of life, f. anima air, breath. life: see -al¹. As n. hardly in Eng. bef. end of 16th c.; not in Bible 1611. Cf. Fr. animal, animau, 16th c. in Littré.]
  A. n.
  1. a. A living being; a member of the higher of the two series of organized beings, of which the typical forms are endowed with life, sensation, and voluntary motion, but of which the lowest forms are hardly distinguishable from the lowest vegetable forms by any more certain marks than their evident relationship to other animal forms, and thus to the animal series as a whole rather than to the vegetable series.

[1398 Trevisa Barth. De P.R. xviii. i. (1495) 735 All that is comprehendyd of flesshe and of spyryte of lyfe..is callyd Animall, a beest. 1513 Douglas æneis Comm. (1839) 1 As for animal and homo..undyr animal beyn contenyt all mankynd, beist, byrd, fowll, fisch, serpent, and all other sik thingis. 1594 T. B. La Primaudaye's Fr. Acad. ii. 581 Many men, by reason of their ignorance in the Latine tongue, think that Animal is a beast, whereas it signifieth a liuing creature.] 1602 Shakes. Ham. ii. ii. 20 What a piece of work is a man!..the Parragon of Animals. 1667 Milton P.L. iv. 621 Man hath his daily work..While other Animals unactive range. 1678 Cudworth Intell. Syst. 75 The Deity is generally supposed to be a Perfectly Happy Animal, Incorruptible and Immortal. 1736 Butler Anal. i. iii. 82 Man is the acknowledged governing animal upon the earth. 1860 Owen Palæont. 4 When an organism receives nutritive matter by a mouth, inhales oxygen and exhales carbonic acid, and developes tissues, the proximate principles of which are quaternary compounds of carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen, it is called an animal. 1869 Huxley in Fortn. Rev. Feb. 138 An animal cannot make protoplasm, but takes it ready made from some other..animal..or from some plant.

  b. The living body or soft fleshy part of a mollusc, crustacean, etc., as distinguished from its shell or other hard part.

1834 McMurtrie tr. Cuvier's Anim. Kingd. 248 These Mollusca are arranged in several families according to the form of their shell, which appears to bear a constant relation to that of the animal. 1868 Dana Syst. Min. (ed. 5) 677 Carbonaceous matters..derived from the animals of the shells, corals, etc. out of which the limestones were..made.

  2. In common usage: one of the lower animals; a brute, or beast, as distinguished from man. (Often restricted by the uneducated to quadrupeds; and familiarly applied especially to such as are used by man, as a horse, ass, or dog.)

1600 Shakes. A.Y.L. i. i. 16 For the which his Animals on his dunghils are as much bound to him as I. 1697 Dryden Virg. Georg. iv. 224 Of all the Race of Animals, alone The Bees have common Cities of their own. 1734 Pope Ess. Man iii. 65 He..feasts the animal he dooms his feast. 1875 Helps Anim. & Masters iii. 53 When I use the word ‘animals’ I mean all living creatures except men and women. 1879 Furnivall in Rep. New Shaks. Soc. 9 The Animal Similes in Henry VI. Mod. Kindness to animals; domestic animals; the animals at the ‘Zoo’; we fastened our animals to trees round the camp-fire.

  3. a. Contemptuously or humorously for: a human being who is no better than a brute, or whose animal nature has the ascendancy over his reason; a mere animal. (Cf. similar use of creature.)

1588 Shakes. L.L.L. iv. ii. 27 His intellect is not replenished, hee is onely an animal, onely sensible in the duller parts. a 1704 T. Brown Table T. Wks. 1730 I. 140 A physician is a grave formal animal. 1765 S. Mackenzie in Ellis Orig. Lett. ii. 509 IV. 481 There is no animal on the face of the earth that the Duke has a more thorough contempt for than Grenville. 1795 M. Wollstonecraft Lett. xxxiii. (1879) 93 My animal is well; I have not yet taught her to eat, but nature is doing the business. I gave her a crust to assist the cutting of her teeth. 1851 Ruskin Stones Ven. (1874) I. App. 363 Above the reach of human animals.

  b. With the. The animal nature in man: cf. beast n. 1 c.

1809 C. Simeon Memoirs (1847) 272 Less mixture of the animal I never expect to see in this world. 1907 H. A. Vachell Her Son i, The animal in this girl was about to spring upon her. 1919 M. K. Bradby Psychoanalysis 231 His fleshly desires were strong, and he was unmerciful to the animal in himself.

  4. As in the slang phr. ‘go the whole hog.’

1838 Dickens Nich. Nick. iii, Opposing all half-measures and preferring to go the extreme animal. 1864 Sala Twice round Clock 62 Better pay first-class and go the entire animal.

  † 5. ellipt. in pl. for animal spirits. Obs. rare.

1628 D. Dent Serm. agst. Drunk. 16 Diseases in all the regions of man's body; in the animalls, vitalls, and naturalls. 1647 Lilly Chr. Astrol. xliv. 284 The Disease is in the Animals, not in the Body.

  6. colloq. A person, thing; esp. in phr. (there is) no such animal.

1922 E. F. Murphy Black Candle ii. xxii. 322, I would like to ask these same ‘old-timers’ ‘how many square shooting addicts have you found in your experience?’ I can hear them roar and say ‘There is no such animal’. 1963 Camb. Rev. 27 Apr. 386/2 Teachers must remember that they are dealing with learners, which is another animal altogether. 1963 Times Rev. Industry May 85/1 Computer makers would therefore have us believe that there is no such animal as a typical programmer.

  B. adj. [In its introduction distinct from animal n., and = Fr. animal, ad. L. animāl-is; but mixed up with attributive uses of the n., so as now to be hardly separable as a whole. As L. animālis was treated sometimes as a deriv. of anima, sometimes of animus, the mediæval use of animālis varied from ‘bestial’ to ‘spiritual,’ and Eng. animal adj. had a similar wide range. Mod. usage connects it with the n. animal, and not with anima or animus.]
  † 1. Connected with sensation, innervation, or will; sometimes = psychical. (Opposed to vital and natural; the animal functions being those of the brain and nervous system; the vital of the heart, lungs, etc.; and the natural those of nutrition and assimilation.) See animal spirits. Obs.

1541 R. Copland Guydon's Quest. Cyrurg., The skull..is that parte of the heade..wherin the anymal membres are conteyned. 1586 Bright Melanch. i. 3 Our actions, whether they be animal or voluntarie, or naturall not depending upon our will. 1656 tr. Hobbes's Elem. Philos. (1839) 405 Certain motions proceeding from sense, which are called animal motions. 1668 Culpepper & Cole Barthol. Anat. i. v. 9 This Motion of the Muscles is sometimes called Voluntary, sometimes Animal, to distinguish it from the Natural, in Brutes Spontaneous. Ibid. ii. vi. 99 The motion of the heart is no Animal motion, but a natural motion.

  † 2. Animate, living, organized, as opposed to inanimate. Obs. rare.

1651 W. G. tr. Cowel's Inst. 67 Animall things cannot be kept..without charge, which is otherwise in inanimate.

  3. Of or pertaining to the functions of animals; or of those parts of the nature of man which he shares with the inferior animals. (Thus opposed to intellectual and spiritual).

1651 Jer. Taylor Course of Serm. i. i. 3 The animal, or the naturall man. 1718 Quincy Compl. Disp. 111 Acquainted with the Animal Œconomy. 1783 Cowper Lett. 3 June Wks. 1876, 132 The season has been most unfavourable to animal life; and I who am merely animal have suffered much by it. 1841 Kingsley Lett. (1878) I. 51 The Excitement of Animal Exercise. 1868 Freeman Norm. Conq. II. vii. 39 The mere animal courage of the soldier.

  4. a. Carnal, fleshly, as opposed to moral, spiritual.

1633 Hales Brevis Disq. in Phenix (1708) II. 337 From the 24th Verse [he] shews wherein that diversity of Bodies consisteth, not in the Manners, but in the very Substance of them..these weak, those strong; these animal, those spiritual. a 1770 Akenside Epist. Curio Wks. 324 Whose native strength of soul..Bursts the tame round of animal affairs. 1879 Froude Cæsar ii. 12 The animal nature had grown as strongly as the moral nature, and along with it the animal appetites. 1923 G. Santayana (title) Scepticism and Animal Faith. 1947 Mind LVI. 336 We have..no reason for believing any of these inferences; they are all a matter of custom or habit, or, if one prefers more recent terminology, of ‘animal faith’.

  b. Characteristic of or resembling (that of) a lower animal. Also Comb., as animal-bodied adj.

1922 D. H. Lawrence England, my England (1924) 216 The wild, bare, animal shoulders. 1924 R. Hichens After the Verdict iii. xv, Fine-souled and animal-bodied men.

  5. Of or pertaining to animals, as opposed to vegetables. (Not separable from the n. used attrib.) Cf. animal pole below and vegetative a. 1 d.)

1646 Sir T. Browne Pseud. Ep. 133 Whereas in Job, according to the Septuagint..we finde the word Phœnix, yet can it have no animall signification; for therein it is not expressed ϕοῖνιξ but στέλεχος ϕοίνικος, the truncke of the Palme tree. 1684 T. Burnet Th. Earth I. 197 This is not necessary in plant-eggs or vegetable seeds: but neither doth it seem necessary in all animal-eggs. 1732 Arbuthnot Rules of Diet I. 252 The Animal Oils, Cream, Butter, and Marrow. 1843 T. W. Jones in Brit. & Foreign Med. Rev. XVI. 547 In the rabbit's ovum..two layers of the blastodermic vesicle can be demonstrated; which Bischoff therefore from this time calls serous or animal and mucous or vegetative. Ibid. 552 The whole embryo is as yet composed only of the thickened central part of the animal layer; the vegetative layer lies quite smooth at its under surface. 1855 Kingsley Glaucus (1878) 186 That the animal and vegetable respirations might counterbalance each other. 1902 E. B. Wilson Cell in Devel. & Inheritance (ed. 2) viii. 379 The smaller cells of the upper hemisphere [sc. of the ovum] represent the ‘animal layer’, outer germ-layer or ectoblast from which arise the epidermis, the nervous system, and the sense-organs. This fact..led to the designation of the two poles as animal and vegetative.

  C. Comb. and phrases. Here it is often impossible to separate the n. and adj. (see prec.)
  1. attrib. or adj. animal-lover, animal-name, animal-ornament; animal black, that formed by the carbonization of animal substance (cf. bone-black, ivory-black); animal charcoal, that formed by charring animal substance; animal electricity, that developed in certain animals, as the torpedo and electric eel; animal food, animal substances used as food; animal flower, one of the actinozoa, as the sea-anemone; animal grab [grab n.² 5], a card game similar to ‘snap’; animal heat, the constant temperature maintained within the bodies of living animals; animal kingdom, the whole species of animals viewed scientifically, as one of the three great divisions of natural objects; animal liberation, the act or process of freeing animals from exploitation (e.g. in laboratory experiments) by man; applied chiefly attrib. to groups dedicated to this, as Animal Liberation Front; hence animal liberationist; animal magnetism = mesmerism; animal magnetist, a mesmerist; animal myth, one founded upon the habits of animals; animal painter, a painter of animals as opposed to landscapes, portraits, or incidents of human action; so animal painting and animal piece; animal plant, a zoophyte or polype, as coral; animal pole Embryology (see quots. and cf. pole n.² 7); animal psychology, the study of the behaviour of animals; hence animal psychologist; animal rights [after human rights, etc.], the natural rights of animals to live free from exploitation, confinement, etc., by humans; esp. as the slogan of a movement seeking to achieve this end; animal size [size n.²], a size made from gelatine; animal tree, one cut into the outline of an animal; animal (tub)-sized, tub-sizing (see quot. 1937 and tub n. 10); animal world, the world of animals. Also animal spirits, q.v.

a 1875 Knight Dict. Mech. I. 106/2 *Animal black, carbonaceous matter obtained by the calcination of bones in close vessels. 1957 E. Pound tr. Rimbaud 15 As factories of suet and animal-Black spread out the whiff and flavour from Grenelle.

1873 Williamson Chem. §56 The presence of the phosphate in this *animal charcoal enables the carbon to remove various colouring matters from liquids.

1793 R. Fowler (title) Experiments and Observations relative to the Influence lately discovered by M. Galvani, and commonly called *Animal Electricity. 1836–39 Todd Cycl. Anat. & Phys. II. 81/2 It is in the mode of its development that the chief peculiarity of Animal Electricity consists.

1767 *Animal flower [see Actinia]. 1833 Penny Cycl. I. 102/2 The popular names of animal flowers and sea anemonies, usually applied to the various species of actinia. Ibid. 104/2 The purple animal-flower (Actinia equina).

1749 Fielding Tom Jones I. i. i. 3 The several Species of *animal and vegetable Food. 1819 Keats Let. 26 (?) Oct. (1958) II. 225, I have left off animal food.

1912 E. M. Dell Way of Eagle liii. 350, I can play *Animal Grab as well as anybody. 1941 J. Cary House of Children x. 38 The unexpected playmate who..forgot some pressing duty in order to play..animal grab, even more noisily than we.

1779 A. Crawford Experiments & Obs. on Animal Heat iv. 81 *Animal heat depends, indirectly, upon a change which the blood undergoes in the course of the circulation. 1874 Roscoe Elem. Chem. 441 The whole of the animal heat is derived from the combustion of the materials of the body.

1847 Carpenter Zool. (title) The Principal Families of the *Animal Kingdom.

1973 N.Y. Rev. Books 5 Apr. 21/4 *Animal Liberation will require greater altruism on the part of mankind than any other liberation movement. 1975 P. Singer (title) Animal liberation. 1978 N.Y. Times Mag. 31 Dec. vi. 20/4 In Great Britain..a clandestine group called the Animal Liberation Front conducts commando-style raids on laboratories, liberating animals and sabotaging research equipment. 1983 Listener 14 Apr. 13/1 The animal liberation movement..is not saying that all lives are of equal worth.

Ibid., Lecky has anticipated what the *animal liberationists are now saying.

1910 F. E. White (title) The *animal lover's birthday book. 1928 R. Campbell Wayzgoose ii. 43 The usual animal-lover's sloppiness which is popular everywhere.

1784 H. Walpole Let. in Academy (1882) 25 Feb. 139/1 *Animal Magnetism has not yet made much impression here. 1786 Lounger (1787) III. 286 The Animal Magnetism of the illustrious Dr. Mesmer. 1860 J. C. Jeaffreson Bk. ab. Doctors II. 38 Animal magnetism, under the name of mesmerism, has been made familiar of late years to the ears of English people.

1792 Looker-On No. 20, 15 May 155 A great number of *animal magnetists were among this crowd of philosophers. 1809 Coleridge Friend (1818) I. 91, I must have forgotten the Animal Magnetists; the proselytes of Brothers, and of Joanna Southcot.

1931 C. L'E. Ewen Hist. Surnames xiii. 333 The Anglo-Saxons commonly bestowed *animal-names upon their children.

1937 Burlington Mag. Feb. 99/1 Intricate geometrically conceived *animal-ornament.

1711 Shaftesbury Charac. III. 378 In *animal-pieces; where beasts, or fowl are represented.

1846 Patterson Zool. 14 The term Zoophyte, literally meaning *animal-plant.

1887 C. O. Whitman in Jrnl. Morphol. I. 108 The next step consists in the formation of four ectoblastic micromeres which eventually present the figure of a quarter-foil at the *animal pole. Ibid. 111 The macromeres..take no further part in the cleavage, if we except the budding off of ectoblastic micromeres at the animal pole. 1890 Billings Med. Dict. I. 69/2 A[nimal] pole, pole of ovum at which there is least yolk, and where the polar globules are extruded; where, also, subsequent segmentation is most rapid. 1961 Brit. Med. Dict. 1134/2 Animal pole, that end of the early ovum which shows..greatest proliferation and metabolic activity, and which eventually forms the head end of the embryo.

1894 Creighton & Titchener tr. Wundt's Lects. Human & Animal Psychol. xxiii. 342 The inclination of *animal psychologists to see the intellectual achievements of animals in the most brilliant light. a 1942 B. Malinowski Sci. Theory Cult. (1944) ix. 89 The concept of drive is better omitted from any analysis of human behavior, unless..we understand that we have to use it differently from the animal psychologists or physiologists.

1881 G. J. Romanes Animal Intelligence p. vii, If it is remembered that my object in these pages is the mapping out of *animal psychology for the purposes of a subsequent synthesis, I may fairly..receive credit for a sound scientific intention.

1879 E. W. B. Nicholson Rights of Animal p. x, My first two chapters bear the plain stamp of Herbert Spencer's Social Statics, but I know no other theory of right and wrong which would not equally allow a proof of *animal rights. 1928 D. Harwood Love for Animals iii. 166 Like other champions of animal rights, he took and rejected what he pleased. 1972 Rep. Society for Animal Rights Sept. 1/2 The Society for Animal Rights, formerly the National Catholic Society for Animal Welfare, has embarked on this program. We intend to bring about recognition of the rights of animals. 1986 Washington Post 29 Apr. b7/4 Animal rights activists set up camp on the grounds of the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda yesterday.

1887 *Animal size [see tub-size s.v. tub n. 10].

1882 St. James's Gaz. 1 Apr., This sketch represents an *animal-tree.

a 1912 *Animal tub-sized [see A.T.S. s.v. A III].

1937 Labarre Dict. Paper Terms 98/1 *Animal tub-sizing, abbr. A.T.S., same as tub-sizing. 1940 Chambers's Techn. Dict. 36/1 Animal-sized, paper which has been hardened by passing the sheet through a bath of gelatine. More costly than engine-sized.

1835 Swainson Classif. Quadr. §15 Aristotle, in his system of the *animal world, excludes man from his scheme.

  2. similative and synthetic deriv., as animal-minded.

1871 R. H. Hutton Ess. I. 28 The ignorant and animal-minded millions by whom the earth is mostly peopled.

  
  
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   Add: [C.] [1.] animal-free a., (esp. of diet or foodstuffs) not containing or using animal products.

1965 Brit. Vegetarian Mar.–Apr. 118 *Animal-free margarine and frying oil. 1970 Ibid. Nov.–Dec. 506 (title) Animal-free nutrition in man. 1986 Green Cuisine Sept.–Oct. 79/1 As a GP, I've certainly seen the beneficial effects of an animal-free diet.

  
  
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   ▸ animal cracker n. N. Amer. a small sweet biscuit made in the shape of an animal (chiefly in pl.).

1878 Washington Post 18 Dec. 4/1 (advt.) *Animal Crackers, Boston Oat Meal and Graham Crackers. 1892 Scribner's Mag. Mar. 300/1 Mr. Simmons had never seen animal crackers before, and he ate them as a child does, biting off the head and each leg in separate nibbles. 1952 Good Housek. Dec. 176/2 Dip packaged animal crackers, one by one, into chocolate. 2003 Essence July 176/2 On the plane I give her animal crackers and let her hold the airplane phone.

Oxford English Dictionary