bestiary

English

Folio from the Rochester Bestiary (13th c.)

Etymology

Borrowed from Medieval Latin bēstiārium, from Latin bēstia (“beast, animal”). By surface analysis, beast +‎ -ary.

Pronunciation

• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈbiːstiˌɛɹi/, /ˈbɛstiˌɛɹi/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

Noun

bestiary (plural bestiaries)

1. A medieval treatise of various real or imaginary animals.
   • 1982, George Plimpton, A Sports Bestiary, McGraw-Hill Companies, →ISBN:

     This book is not actually a bestiary. It is what most people think a bestiary is—namely an assemblage of vividly imagined beasts who behave somewhat quirkily, bear only the vaguest application to real life, […]

2. (gaming) A list or guidebook of the monsters to be found in a roleplaying game.

Related terms

• beast
• bestial

Translations

A medieval treatise of animals

• Arabic: حيوانات رامزة
• Armenian: please add this translation if you can
• Basque: bestiario
• Belarusian: бестыярыюм m (bjestyjaryjum)
• Bulgarian: бестиарий m (bestiarij)
• Catalan: bestiari (ca) m
• Czech: bestiář
• Danish: bestiarium
• Dutch: bestiarium (nl) n
• Esperanto: bestarlibro
• Finnish: bestiaari, eläinkirja
• French: bestiaire (fr) m
• German: Bestiarium (de) n
• Hebrew: ספר חיות, בסטיארי
• Ido: bestiario (io)
• Italian: bestiario (it) m
• Japanese: 動物寓意譚
• Korean: 베스티아리 (beseutiari)
• Latin: bēstiārium n
• Macedonian: бестија́р m (bestijár)
• Norwegian: bestiarium
• Polish: bestiariusz m, bestiarium (pl) n
• Portuguese: bestiário m
• Romanian: bestiar (ro) n
• Russian: бестиа́рий (ru) m (bestiárij)
• Slovene: bestiarij
• Spanish: bestiario (es) m
• Swedish: bestiarium (sv) n
• Ukrainian: бестіа́рій m (bestiárij)
• Welsh: bwystori, bwystawr

Further reading

• bestiary on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Anagrams

• Sybarite, sybarite