animalian

English

Etymology

animal +‎ -ian

Adjective

animalian (comparative more animalian, superlative most animalian)

1. (sciences) Of the kingdom Animalia, which includes humans.
   • 1998, Sayre N. Greenfield, The Ends of Allegory‎^[1], Delaware, →ISBN, page 142:

     To give an instance from the animalian side of Linnaeus's efforts, he may have classified the swift (Hirundo apus) and the swallow (Hirundo rustica) together because of general similarity … .

2. (broadly) Of an animal or animals, usually including humans but sometimes connoting nonhuman nature.
   • 1999, Anne Rice, Vittorio the Vampire‎^[2], Ballantine, published 2001, →ISBN, page 121:

     We stood before the Lord in the high-backed chair, and I saw that the wood figures of his regal throne were, of course, animalian, feline and diabolical.

3. (loosely, rare) Like that of an animal or animals, usually including humans but sometimes connoting nonhuman nature.

   Coordinate term: animaloid

   • 1982, Anne Rice, Cry to Heaven‎^[3], Ballantine, published 1995, →ISBN, page 78:

     He did not look at her because he did not wish to see that deliciously animalian slit of her mouth, naked and red, beneath the white mask that made her eyes look so feline.

   • 2007, Lynn Stegner, Because a Fire Was in My Head‎^[4], Nebraska, →ISBN, page 202:

     His big hands clutched him about the collar of the suit that had once been fine, and he was shaking him with animalian violence, shoving him […] .

Synonyms

• (of any animal, including humans): animalic
• (of a nonhuman animal): bestial, beastly
• (like that of a nonhuman animal): bestial, beastly

Hyponyms

• mammalian
• human
• nonhuman