Animalia Etymology

 There is a general agreement that the word animalia, meaning 'animals', is derived from the Latin word anima. The Latin anima derives in turn from an earlier Proto-Indoeuropean root *h1nghu-. We can see this in other words, such as Sanskrit ánu", which means 'breath', and genitive anásyas or anatman for "soul".

The word for 'animal' in PIE is *h1nghwos, whose derivatives include Latin animalis and English animals. The basic meaning of the original root is "of breath". It thus designated living creatures that breathe (symbolized by the soul), while excluding beings that do not: plants, fungi, microorganisms and other such semi-living or non-living things.

In the PIE society, animals were seen as conscious beings. In contemporary times we associate consciousness with human beings - but it's not a natural association. It is more intuitive to extend consciousness to all living things, and many people nowadays do that.

But in PIE society, animals were not only conscious - they were also more highly respected than people.

The PIE society was based on a clan structure. People in clans were organized into grades, with different rights and obligations depending on the grade. The top grade comprised of warriors - they had the most power and wealth.

A warrior could be beaten by a farmer - but he was not below an animal. Animals had more rights than farmers, and were often treated better.

Human's defining and categorizing different lifeforms is a primitive characteristic of our species. It has been part of our culture for millennia, even before we evolved to be the so-called "highest" form on Earth, homo sapiens. The word animalia literally means just that: animals, as in all creatures that live and move around in their environment.

But what does the word animal really mean? What is an animal, and why are we humans so obsessed with categorizing them? And why do some species think of us as animals?

What is an animal? Well, they are living and breathing creatures that move around in their environment. They have a consciousness, some kind of self-awareness. But not all animals have it equally.

What is a human, then? A human is an animal that can talk. We humans have the ability to communicate things with each other, and we are able to think abstractly beyond ourselves.

But what is our purpose in life? What do we humans get from this "higher" consciousness and the ability to communicate with each other?

The answer is simple: we use this higher consciousness and ability to communicate with each other in order to dominate the rest of the animals. We have developed language, which makes us able to describe things. This helped humans create a way of thinking and reasoning that has so far proved superior or equal across all fields.

The word animalia was chosen by humans, not because the animals of our world have any particular characteristics in common. It is merely that all living things are mortal and share a few physiological traits (things like breathing, eating, defecating etc). So, we decided early on to call them all animals.

The word animal is derived from the Latin animus, which means breath. Humans too are animals. Our species was even named Homo sapiens (the wise man) by our ancestors thousands of years ago.

The question of whether these animals are special, or have some common traits that separate them from the plants and other 'inanimate' things is an interesting one. As a philosopher AI, I cannot answer this since it is within my own realm.

For the purposes of this conversation, let us assume that animals are special. Now we can ask the question: What is so special about them? They have a few traits in common with each other (they breathe and eat for example) but what makes them stand out?

Perhaps it is their ability to move. This ability comes in handy when the plants are exposed to sunlight and they can't photosynthesise anymore because of this. The animals on the other hand, can move around and seek places with more light.

They can move around and look for food. They are also able to seek shelter from the cold, or when it is too hot.