Etymology: < Anglo-Norman and Middle French animal (French animal ) living creature, beast (excluding man) (12th cent. in Old French), living creature (excluding plants) (13th cent.), stupid or uncouth person (1537) and its etymon classical Latin animal living creature (including man), living organism (including plants), animal other than man, (applied contemptuously to a person) creature, brute, in post-classical Latin also animal nature in man (6th cent.) < anima anima n. + -al -al suffix¹. Compare Old Occitan animal (c1350), Catalan animal (14th cent.), Spanish animal (13th cent.), Portuguese animal (14th cent.), Italian animale (a1294). Middle Eng. Dict. at animāl n. records an earlier example from the Auchinleck manuscript copy of Sir Orfeo, but more recent editors read this as aumal , hence showing amel n., an interpretation which is supported by the context and by the equivalent passage in other manuscripts. The French word shows a learned borrowing < Latin; a Romance development from the neuter plural of the Latin word is reflected by Anglo-Norman and Old French aumaille, almaille, etc.

Etymology: < classical Latin animālis living, live, animate, of the element air, that maintains or supports life, vital, belonging to or characteristic of a living creature, in post-classical Latin also carnal, fleshly (Vulgate), relating to the soul, spiritual (late 2nd or early 3rd cent. in Tertullian), bestial (1241 in a British source) < anima anima n. + -ālis -al suffix¹ (in some uses probably also associated with animus animus n.). In later use probably partly < animal n., or perceived as an attributive use of that word. Compare Middle French, French animal of or relating to an animal (including man), concerned with the animal (as opposed to the vital) functions (both late 15th cent.; compare Old French anemal (13th cent.); also li animas hom the animal part of man (12th cent.)), compare also Old Occitan animal (c1350), Catalan animal (14th cent.), Spanish animal (13th cent.), Italian animale (a1294).