H. P. Grice on "beast"

Usage in Romance languages generally reserves “animal” for animals that lack reason but are mobile. However, if we take into account its etymological echo of the root “anima,” in the sense of the vital breath, “animal” also has an extended meaning that allows it to designate any living being. The Greek language offers us a still broader semantic configuration: ζῷον (from ζώω, “to live,” ζωή, “life”), which is usually rendered as “animal,” includes in many texts not only humans but also the stars and the gods, and sometimes plants. Moreover, the usual translation of the term “animal” in German, das Tier, refers to still another constellation of meanings. Close to θήϱ, with its derivative θηϱίον, which means “wild beast,” “predator of game”), the etymology of Tier reveals a proximity not with the soul, or even with life, but with brutality, savagery, bestial violence, and even death.