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Animal vs Person - What's the difference?

animal | person |

As nouns the difference between animal and person

is that animal is in scientific usage, a multicellular organism that is usually mobile, whose cells are not encased in a rigid cell wall (distinguishing it from plants and fungi) and which derives energy solely from the consumption of other organisms (distinguishing it from plants) while person is an individual; usually a human being.

As an adjective animal

is of or relating to animals.

As a verb person is

to represent as a person; to personify; to impersonate.

animal

English

(wikipedia animal)

Etymology 1

From (etyl) (m), from (etyl) (m), from (etyl) (m), a nominal use of an adjective from (m), neuter of (m), from ).

Noun

(en noun)
  • In scientific usage, a multicellular organism that is usually mobile, whose cells are not encased in a rigid cell wall (distinguishing it from plants and fungi) and which derives energy solely from the consumption of other organisms (distinguishing it from plants).
  • In non-scientific usage, any member of the kingdom Animalia other than a human being.
  • In non-scientific usage, any land-living vertebrate (i.e. not birds, fishes, insects etc.).
  • * {{quote-magazine, year=2013, month=July-August, author=(Henry Petroski)
  • , title= Geothermal Energy , volume=101, issue=4, magazine=(American Scientist) , passage=Ancient nomads, wishing to ward off the evening chill and enjoy a meal around a campfire, had to collect wood and then spend time and effort coaxing the heat of friction out from between sticks to kindle a flame. With more settled people, animals were harnessed to capstans or caged in treadmills to turn grist into meal.}}
  • (figuratively) A person who behaves wildly; a bestial, brutal, brutish, cruel, or inhuman person.
  • (informal) A person of a particular type.
  • Synonyms
    * (organism) beast, creature * (non-human organism) beast * (person who behaves wildly) brute, monster, savage
    Hyponyms
    * See also

    Etymology 2

    From (etyl) animalis, from either or animus. Originally distinct from the noun, it became associated with attributive use of the noun and is now indistinguishable from it.

    Adjective

    (-)
  • Of or relating to animals.
  • animal instincts
  • Raw, base, unhindered by social codes.
  • animal passions
  • Pertaining to the spirit or soul; relating to sensation or innervation.
  • * 2003', To explain what activated the flesh, ‘'''animal spirits’ were posited, superfine fluids which shuttled between the mind and the vitals, conveying messages and motion. — Roy Porter, ''Flesh in the Age of Reason (Penguin 2004, p. 47)
  • (slang, Ireland) Excellent.
  • Synonyms
    * (of animals) beastly, bestial * (unhindered by social codes) animalistic, beastly, bestial, untamed, wild
    Derived terms
    {{der3, animalistic , animal liberation , animal magnetism , manimal}}

    See also

    *

    Anagrams

    * * * * * * ----

    person

    English

    Noun

    (en-noun) (by suppletion)
  • An individual; usually a human being.
  • * 1784 , William Jones, The Description and Use of a New Portable Orrery, &c. , PREFACE
  • THE favourable reception the Orrery has met with from Per?ons of the fir?t di?tinction, and from Gentlemen and Ladies in general, has induced me to add to it ?everal new improvements in order to give it a degree of Perfection; and di?tingui?h it from others; which by Piracy, or Imitation, may be introduced to the Public.
  • * , chapter=7
  • , title= The Mirror and the Lamp , passage=“A very welcome, kind, useful present, that means to the parish. By the way, Hopkins, let this go no further. We don't want the tale running round that a rich person has arrived. Churchill, my dear fellow, we have such greedy sharks, and wolves in lamb's clothing. […]”}}
  • # A character or part, as in a play; a specific kind or manifestation of individual character, whether in real life, or in literary or dramatic representation; an assumed character.
  • #* Francis Bacon
  • his first appearance upon the stage in his new person of a sycophant or juggler
  • #* Jeremy Taylor
  • No man can long put on a person and act a part.
  • #* Milton
  • To bear rule, which was thy part / And person , hadst thou known thyself aright.
  • #* South
  • How different is the same man from himself, as he sustains the person of a magistrate and that of a friend!
  • # (Christianity) Any one of the three hypostases of the Holy Trinity: the Father, Son, or Holy Spirit.
  • #* Book of Common Prayer
  • three persons and one God
  • # Any sentient or socially intelligent being.
  • # (in a compound noun or noun phrase) Someone who likes or has an affinity for (a specified thing).
  • Jack's always been a dog person , but I prefer cats.
  • The physical body of a being seen as distinct from the mind, character, etc.
  • *, III.1.2.iii:
  • when the young ladies laughed at her for it, she replied, that it was not his person that she did embrace and reverence, but, with a Platonic love, the divine beauty of his soul.
  • * 1897 , (Henry James), (What Maisie Knew) :
  • The Captain, inclining his military person , sat sideways to be closer and kinder […].
  • * 1978 , (Lawrence Durrell), Livia , Faber & Faber 1992 (Avignon Quintet), p. 418:
  • At first blush it seemed that what was striking about him rested on the fact that his dress was exotic, his person foreign.
  • * 2004 , (The New York Times) :
  • Meanwhile, the dazed Sullivan, dressed like a bum with no identification on his person , is arrested and put to work on a brutal Southern chain gang.
  • (legal) Any individual or formal organization with standing before the courts.
  • At common law a corporation or a trust is legally a person .
  • (legal) The human genitalia; specifically , the penis.
  • * 1824 , ( 5 Geo. 4. c. 83, United Kingdom), section 4:
  • [E]very Person wilfully, openly, lewdly, and obscenely exposing his Person in any Street, Road, or public Highway, or in the View thereof, or in any Place of public Resort, with Intent to insult any Female ... and being subsequently convicted of the Offence for which he or she shall have been so apprehended, shall be deemed a Rogue and Vagabond, within the true Intent and Meaning of this Act ...
  • * 1972 , Evans v. Ewels'', ''Weekly Law Reports , vol. 1, p. 671 at pp. 674–675:
  • It seems to me that at any rate today, and indeed by 1824, the word "person " in connection with sexual matters had acquired a meaning of its own; a meaning which made it a synonym for "penis." It may be ... that it was the forerunner of Victorian gentility which prevented people calling a penis a penis. But however that may be I am satisfied in my own mind that it has now acquired an established meaning to the effect already stated. It is I venture to say, well known amongst those who practise in the courts that the word "person" is so used over and over again. It is the familiar synonym of that part of the body, and, as one of the reasons for my decision in this case, I would use that interpretation of what was prevailing in 1824 and what has become established in the 150 years since then.
  • (grammar) A linguistic category used to distinguish between the speaker of an utterance and those to whom or about whom he is speaking. See grammatical person.
  • (biology) A shoot or bud of a plant; a polyp or zooid of the compound Hydrozoa, Anthozoa, etc.; also, an individual, in the narrowest sense, among the higher animals.
  • * Encyc. Brit.
  • True corms, composed of united personae yet in sponges and corals occasionally by fusion of several originally distinct persons .
    (Haeckel)

    Usage notes

    In senses 1, 1.3, and 1.4, the plural is either persons'' or ''people'', with ''persons'' sounding more formal and ''people'' more colloquial. In senses 1.2, 2, 3, and 5 ''persons is the only plural.

    Synonyms

    * See also

    Derived terms

    * advance person * businessperson * cameraperson * chairperson * common person * draftsperson * first person * foreperson * houseperson * in person * layperson * newsperson * nonperson * ombudsperson * person-to-person * person-hour * person-year * persona * personable * personal * personate * personification * personify * personnel * repairperson * salesperson * second person * stick person * spokesperson * third person * unperson * VIP

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • (obsolete) To represent as a person; to personify; to impersonate.
  • (Milton)
  • (transitive, humorous, gender-neutral) To man.
  • * 2007 , Brian R. Brenner, Don't Throw This Away!: The Civil Engineering Life (page 40)
  • We had hit the iceberg, and it was time to person the lifeboats.
  • * 2008 , William Guy, Something Sensational (page 337)
  • We went so far as to stop in a hotel on the way out of Speyer — to ask for directions — but the teenaged girl personing the desk there seemed to be such an idiot

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