bestial

From Middle English bestial, from Old French bestial, from Late Latin bēstiālis, from Latin bēstia (“beast”) (whence English beast).

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈbɛs.ti.əl/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈbɛs.t͡ʃəl/, /ˈbis.t͡ʃəl/

bestial (comparative more bestial, superlative most bestial)

1. (literally and figuratively) Beast-like
   • c. 1603–1604 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Othello, the Moore of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene iii]:

     Reputation, reputation, reputation! O, I have lost my reputation! I have lost the immortal part of myself, and what remains is bestial.

   • 1667, John Milton, “Book IV”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC, lines 753-4:

     By thee adulterous lust was driven from men /
     Among the bestial herds to range […]

   • 1886 January 5, Robert Louis Stevenson, Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., →OCLC:

     This familiar that I called out of my own soul, and sent forth alone to do his good pleasure, was a being inherently malign and villainous; his every act and thought centered on self; drinking pleasure with bestial avidity from any degree of torture to another; relentless like a man of stone.

   • 1900 April, Willa Cather, “Eric Hermannson's Soul”, in Cosmopolitan:

     His was a bestial face, a face that bore the stamp of Nature's eternal injustice.

   • 2022 December 31, Matteo Wong, “Hollywood’s Love Affair With Fictional Languages”, in The Atlantic:

     The Game of Thrones novels were best sellers without fleshed-out Dothraki; the languages in Star Wars, one of the most successful franchises ever, are mostly gibberish, even if Han Solo claims to understand Chewbacca’s bestial warbling.

• beastly
• animalian

• faunal

• beast
• bestiary

From Middle Scots bestiall, from Middle English bestaile, from Old French bestaille, from Late Latin bēstiālia; later reinforced and remodelled on Middle French bestial, itself from Late Latin bēstiālis.

bestial pl (plural only)

2. (Scotland, obsolete) Cattle.
   • 1845, The New Statistical Account of Scotland: Forfar, Kincardine, page 94:

     […] much must depend upon the way in which bestial are bought or reared, and the state of the markets when they are sold.

• Stabile, ableist, albites, astilbe, bastile, libates, stabile

Borrowed from Late Latin bēstiālis, from Latin bēstia (“beast”).

• IPA^(key): /bɛs.tjal/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Homophones: bestiale, bestiales

bestial (feminine bestiale, masculine plural bestiaux, feminine plural bestiales)

1. bestial

• bête

• “bestial”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

• baliste, établis

Borrowed from Late Latin bēstiālis, from Latin bēstia (“beast”).

bestial m or f (plural bestiais)

1. beastly
2. massive, huge, giant
3. tremendous, fantastic, awesome

• bestia
• bestialidade

• beestial, beestyal, bestiall, bestialle, bestyal, bestyall

From Old French bestial, from Late Latin bēstiālis.

• IPA^(key): /bɛstiˈaːl/, /ˈbɛstial/, /ˈbɛːstial/

bestial

1. animal (of or pertaining to animals)
2. physical; non-spiritual (of faculties, knowledge, etc.)
3. beastly, depraved (lacking human sensibility)
4. stupid, unlearned

• beestly (all senses)

• bestially

• English: bestial

• “bē̆stiā̆l(e, adj.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.

First known attestation circa 1190, borrowed from Latin bēstiālis.

bestial m (oblique and nominative feminine singular bestiale)

1. bestial (of or relating to a beast)

• beste

• English: bestial
• French: bestial

Borrowed from Late Latin bēstiālis, from Latin bēstia (“beast”).

• Rhymes: -al, -aw
• Hyphenation: bes‧ti‧al

bestial m or f (plural bestiais)

1. bestial; brutish
2. beastly
3. (informal) cool

• besta
• bestalidade

Borrowed from French bestial, Late Latin bēstiālis, from Latin bēstia (“beast”). By surface analysis, bestie +‎ -al.

• IPA^(key): [bes.tiˈal]

bestial m or n (feminine singular bestială, masculine plural bestiali, feminine and neuter plural bestiale)

1. bestial, animal
2. (informal) cool

As indicated by the informal meaning of "cool", this word does not have the same negative connotations as in English.

• animalic
• feroce
• fioros
• sălbatic

• bestialitate
• bestie

Borrowed from Late Latin bēstiālis, from Latin bēstia (“beast”).

• IPA^(key): /besˈtjal/ [besˈt̪jal]
• Rhymes: -al
• Syllabification: bes‧tial

bestial m or f (masculine and feminine plural bestiales)

1. beastly
2. massive, huge, giant
3. tremendous, fantastic, awesome

• “bestial”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.7, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 2023 November 28