The earth sings when he touches it the basest horn of his When I bestride him, I soar, I am a hawk: he trots the air In these lines, hawk is still just a metaphor, but the context is very close to its modern use: Shakespeare brings the use of the word to a war context in the words he gives to the French prince eagerly awaiting dawn and battle with Henry V. Falcon and hawk are often synonymous, and the verb to hawk, meaning “to hunt birds by means of a trained hawk” was used in the late Middle Ages, which led to the word’s use meaning “to strike like a hawk.” The ancient art of falconry was reserved for nobility, and the aggressive behavior of the birds of prey became a metaphor for warlike actions and attitudes among people. Hawk and hawkish have two distinct anthropomorphic uses in English: as a description of appearance and as a description of attitude. ( Party animal, by the way, was first used by Bill Murray in a Saturday Night Live sketch from 1977, according to the Oxford English Dictionary.) Let’s take a look at some of those colorful words that can turn humdrum writers into party animals. A more neutral reference to the division between the intellectual and physical side of human beings is the term animal magnetism, which also dates to the 1700s. This use was embodied in the character of the Muppet drummer named Animal.Īnimal anthropomorphism of a non-derogatory sort goes back at least to political animal, which has been in the language since the early 1700s. “Our animal appetites and daily wants.” Wordsworth : Pertaining to the sentient part of a creature, as distinguished from the intellectual, rational, or spiritual. Samuel Johnson’s dictionary of 1755 included this figurative meaning of animal (and Noah Webster included it in his dictionary of 1828):īy way of contempt, we say of a stupid man, that his is a stupid animal.Ī finer distinction has subsequently been made by dictionaries, as shown in this definition from the 1934 edition of Merriam-Webster’s Unabridged: Shakespeare, Love's Labour's Lost, IV, 2 Replenished he is only an animal, only sensible in In a book he hath not eat paper, as it were he Sir, he hath never fed of the dainties that are bred Unaccommodated man is no more but such a poor, bare, forkedĪnd at other times, animal is used to indicate that a person is somehow less than human, usually in intelligence: On's are sophisticated! Thou art the thing itself No hide, the sheep no wool, the cat no perfume. Is man no more than this? Consider him well. Sometimes, people are identified as not superior to other animals but just one species among others: The beauty of the world, the paragon of animals! What a piece of work is a man! how noble in reason! how infinite inįaculties! in form and moving how express and admirable! inĪction how like an angel! in apprehension how like a god! Sometimes, people are identified as occupying the highest position in the hierarchy of the genus: This use traces back to the time of Shakespeare, and, indeed, Shakespeare’s use of animal shows the range its use. Outside of this basic definition, the use of the word animal as a metaphor referring to people and their characters or characteristics has a long history in the language. The definition of human uses the term mammal the definition of mammal uses vertebrate the definition of vertebrate finally identifies the organism as an “animal.” (Sometimes definitions are like Russian dolls, uncovering ever-more specific classification with each successive cross-reference.) You will see eight “lame ducks” at the end of the Rose Fairy Variation from “Sleeping Beauty”.Biologically, of course, human beings are animals. To see a “lame duck” in action, watch this YouTube video. Each step up and each tombe’ travel toward the diagonal corner. Normally, these turns are done traveling on the diagonal. Continue: step up on the straight leg, tombe’ onto the bent leg.When you’ve turned all the way around, fall (tombe’) onto the bent right leg, which stays bent. Pick up the bent right leg in passe’ front as you turn to the right.Step up onto the straight left leg, keeping it straight.Now swing your straight left leg around like a peg leg in a pirate movie.Step out on your bent leg (the right one). If you try to walk around like that, you will have a really bad limp! Your right leg is permanently shorter than your left. It can still swim pretty well, but when it walks on land, it has a really bad limp. I have occasionally seen a duck with an injured foot. The duck is lucky to be alive, but in the struggle, she sometimes injures her foot. Some ducks have had an unfortunate encounter with a turtle.
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