bestiality

English

Alternative forms

• beastiality (misspelling)

Etymology

From bestial +‎ -ity.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈbɛstʃəlˌlɪtɪ/

  • Audio (Southern England)

    (file)

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈbistiˌælɪti/, /ˌbist͡ʃiˈælɪti/, /ˌbɛst͡ʃiˈælɪti/

  • Audio (US)

    (file)

• Rhymes: -ælɪti

Noun

bestiality (countable and uncountable, plural bestialities)

1. Sexual activity between a human and another animal species.
   • 2018, Tim Flannery, Europe: A Natural History, page 216:

     Less common, but still frequent, are erect penises, more complete female nudes, copulations, and even scenes of bestiality.

   • 2019 October 31, Garrick Beckett, “Beckett: How BioWare Approaches Religion & Sexuality”, in The Lutheran Column‎^[1], archived from the original on 17 September 2020, Blog‎^[2]:

     Second, the romance option brings up a unique issue: having sex with an alien. It’s somewhat difficult to say what the Christian should think on this issue because, well, the Bible doesn’t talk about aliens. Probably because they don’t exist (sorry to burst your bubble). Would this be considered bestiality? Or is it not bestiality since they are also beings capable of rational and ethical thought and self-reflection unlike usual animals?

2. Bestial nature, savagery, inhumanity, like (or akin to) an animal's.
   • 1963, James Boggs, The American Revolution: Pages from a Negro Worker's Notebook:

     the pitiful inadequacy of the reforms and the bestiality of the white society

3. (dated) Any abstract entity similar to a beast.
4. (archaic) A status of lower animal.
5. (archaic) An animal-like instinct or behaviour.
6. (archaic) A mark, trait, or emblem of a beast.

Related terms

• beastliness

Translations

status of animal

• Finnish: eläimellisyys (fi)
• French: bestialité (fr) f
• Galician: bestialidade (gl) f
• Hungarian: bestialitás (hu), állatiasság (hu)
• Malay: kebinatangan
• Portuguese: bestialidade (pt) f
• Romanian: bestialitate (ro) f
• Russian: ско́тство (ru) n (skótstvo), зве́рство (ru) n (zvérstvo)
• Spanish: bestialidad (es) f

sexual activity with animals

• Afrikaans: bestialiteit
• Arabic: بَهِيمِيّة f (bahīmiyya)
• Catalan: bestialitat f
• Chinese:

  Cantonese: 獸姦／兽奸 (sau³ gaan¹)

  Mandarin: 獸姦／兽奸 (zh) (shòujiān), 人獸交／人兽交 (rénshòujiāo)

• Dutch: bestialiteit (nl) f
• Finnish: eläimeen sekaantuminen, sodomia (fi)
• French: zoophilie (fr) f, bestialité (fr) f
• Galician: bestialidade (gl) f, bestialismo (gl) f, zoofilia (gl) f
• German: Sodomie (de) f, Zoophilie f
• Greek: κτηνοβασία (el) f (ktinovasía)
• Hebrew: מִשְׁכַּב בְּהֵמָה m (mishkáv behemá)
• Hindi: पशुगमन (paśugman), तिर्यग्योनिगमन (tiryagyonigman) (rare)
• Italian: zoofilia (it) f
• Japanese: 獣姦 (じゅうかん, jūkan)
• Korean: 수간(獸姦) (ko) (sugan)
• Latin: bestialitas f
• Portuguese: zoofilia (pt) f, bestialidade (pt) f, bestialismo f
• Romanian: bestialitate (ro) f
• Russian: скотоло́жество (ru) n (skotolóžestvo) / скотоло́жство (ru) n (skotolóžstvo), зоофили́я (ru) f (zoofilíja)
• Serbo-Croatian: skotološtvo (sh) n, skotstvo f
• Spanish: bestialidad (es) f, bestialismo f, zoofilia (es) f
• Swedish: tidelag (sv) n

bestial nature

• Finnish: eläimellisyys (fi)
• German: Bestialität (de) f
• Hungarian: bestialitás (hu)
• Polish: bestialność f (archaic), bestialstwo n, bestializm m (dated)
• Swedish: bestialitet (sv) c, råhet (sv) c