I fucking love the etymology of animal and food words. My favorite is deer, which is related to the German Tier, and originally meant “animal,” because I imagine early Germanic speakers looking at a deer and thinking “this is it, the quintessential animal.” I get it, honestly.
Not really early Germanic though, because every other Germanic language kept the meaning of “animal”. It’s only modern English (since the 1500s) that narrowed it all the way to one specific species (or family of Cervidae).
My guess would be that the language gained the word “animal” from French and “deer” was pushed from its niche and forced to specialize?
I fucking love the etymology of animal and food words. My favorite is deer, which is related to the German Tier, and originally meant “animal,” because I imagine early Germanic speakers looking at a deer and thinking “this is it, the quintessential animal.” I get it, honestly.
Not really early Germanic though, because every other Germanic language kept the meaning of “animal”. It’s only modern English (since the 1500s) that narrowed it all the way to one specific species (or family of Cervidae).
My guess would be that the language gained the word “animal” from French and “deer” was pushed from its niche and forced to specialize?