Latin Scholars?

Question

What is the word for animal or animals in Latin?

[I'm doing a project & i would really appreciate it if you guys could just help me out with that.]


Thanks.

Answer 1

I think it's 'fauna', in plural anyway.

"Faunus" was a Roman Nature God, from whom we get the word 'faun'. "Fauna" was a R N Goddess. (But 'fauna' does have a technical use limiting it to the animal life of a specific area/habitat, too.)

We use "Flora and fauna" in English to refer to 'ecology', in a sense - "Plants/trees and animals" ('flora' = plant-life).

It's not anything like animus/anima, tho. That related to 'soul' or 'living', don't get confused!

Answer 2

There are several words for it.

- animal (singular) , animalia (plural). Animals, but also used for all living creatures ("animal kingdom"). In science, I think that animalia is the preferred term for animals in general (Flora et fauna > Animalia)
- bestia (sg), bestiae (pl). Animals/beasts.
- fera (sg), ferae (pl.). Wild animals.

Answer 3

bestia

Here's a link to a Latin-English dictionary if you have other problems.

http://www.freedict.com/onldict/lat.html

Good luck with your project!

tfedge