bestia

See also: Bestia, bestía, bestią, and bèstia

Aragonese

Etymology

From Latin bēstia (“animal, beast”).

Noun

bestia f (plural bestias)

1. beast

References

• Bal Palazios, Santiago (2002) “bestia”, in Dizionario breu de a luenga aragonesa, Zaragoza, →ISBN

Catalan

Etymology

From bes- +‎ tia.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): (Central, Balearic) [bəsˈti.ə]
• IPA^(key): (Valencia) [besˈti.a]

Noun

bestia f (plural besties)

1. great-aunt

See also

• besoncle

Italian

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin bēstia. Cognate to biscia, which is not borrowed but inherited.

Pronunciation

• (Tuscany) IPA^(key): /ˈbe.stja/
  • Rhymes: -estja
  • Hyphenation: bé‧stia
• (central Italian, Rome) IPA^(key): /ˈbɛ.stja/
  • Rhymes: -ɛstja
  • Hyphenation: bè‧stia

Noun

bestia f (plural bestie)

1. beast
   • 13^th century, “ⅬⅩⅩⅩⅡ. De’ Pagoni [82. About Peacocks]”, in Trattato dell'agricoltura [Treatise On Agriculture]‎^[1], translation of Opus ruralium commodorum libri Ⅻ by Pietro De' Crescenzi, published 1605, page 474:

     Il nido si dee lor fare sotto tetto, e da terra levato, acciocchè serpente o bestia, andar non vi possa

     Their nest is to be made under a canopy, and above ground, so that no snake or [other] animal can get to it

Derived terms

• bestia da soma

Related terms

• bestiale
• bestiario
• biscia

Descendants

• → Romanian: bestie
• → Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic script: бѐштија, бе̏стија

  Latin script: bèštija, bȅstija

Anagrams

• basite, beasti

Latin

Etymology

The origin is unknown. A Proto-Indo-European preform *dʰwēstiā has been proposed, from the root *dʰwēs- (“to breathe”) (compare Gothic 𐌳𐌹𐌿𐍃 (dius) from *dʰwes- (“to breathe”); more at English deer), but this is uncertain, since an initial f- would be expected in Latin; it apparently follows instead the same initial change of duellum>bellum (see w:History of Latin § Other sequences).

Pronunciation

• bēstia: (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /ˈbeːs.ti.a/, [ˈbeːs̠t̪iä]
• bēstia: (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈbes.ti.a/, [ˈbɛst̪iä]

Noun

bēstia f (genitive bēstiae); first declension

1. a beast
   • 405 CE, Jerome, Vulgate Proverbs.30.30:

     Leō fortissimus bēstiārum ad nūllīus pavēbit occursum.

     A lion, the strongest of beasts, who hath no fear of any thing he meeteth (Douay-Rheims trans., Challoner rev.)

Declension

First-declension noun.

	singular	plural
nominative	bēstia	bēstiae
genitive	bēstiae	bēstiārum
dative	bēstiae	bēstiīs
accusative	bēstiam	bēstiās
ablative	bēstiā	bēstiīs
vocative	bēstia	bēstiae

Synonyms

• bēlua

Derived terms

• bēstiālis
• bēstiārius (“involving wild beasts; person who fights with wild beasts in the arena”)
• bēstiola (“a little creature or beast”)

Descendants

• ⇒ Vulgar Latin: bīstia
  • → Albanian: bishë
  • Emilian: bìsa, béssa (Bologna)
  • Istriot: bies'cia
  • Italian: biscia
  • Old French: bisse, biche
    • Middle French: biche
      • French: biche
  • Old Galician-Portuguese: bescha
    • Galician: bicha
    • Portuguese: bicha
    • Portuguese: bicho
      • Kabuverdianu: bitchu
  • Old Spanish:
    • Spanish: bicho, bicha
  • Rhaeto-Romance:
    • Friulian: bis, bise
  • Romagnol: bèsa
  • Venetan: bisa, bìsa, bissa — alternative spellings, biso m
• → Aragonese: bestia
• → Asturian: bestia
• → Czech: bestie
• → Friulian: bestie
• → German: Bestie
• → Italian: bestia
  • → Romanian: bestie
  • → Serbo-Croatian:

    Cyrillic script: бѐштија, бе̏стија

    Latin script: bèštija, bȅstija

• → Old French: beste
  • Middle French: beste
    • French: bête
  • Gallo: bestt
  • Norman: baête (Cotentin), beyte (Pays de Caux, Pays de Rouen), beet (Sark)
  • → Middle Dutch: beest
    • Dutch: beest
      • Afrikaans: bees
      • Jersey Dutch: bêst, beîśe
      • Negerhollands: beest
      • → Papiamentu: bichi
      • → Sranan Tongo: beist
    • → Middle Low German: best
      • Low German: Beest
      • → Danish: bæst
      • → German: Biest
      • → Norwegian:
        • Norwegian Bokmål: beist, best
        • Norwegian Nynorsk: beist
      • → Swedish: best
  • → Middle English: beeste, beste, beest, best, beast, beaste
    • English: beast
    • Scots: beast, baste, baist, baest, beist, best
    • Yola: beast
• → Old Irish: píast, péist
  • Middle Irish: péist
    • Irish: péist
    • Manx: beisht
    • Scottish Gaelic: bèist
• → Old Occitan:
  • Catalan: bèstia
    • →? Sicilian: vèstia
  • Occitan: bèstia
• → Old Galician-Portuguese: besta, bestia
  • Galician: besta
  • Portuguese: besta
• → Polish: bestia
• → Romansch: bestga, biestg, bestia, bes-cha
• → Russian: бестия (bestija)
• → Slovak: beštia
• → Sicilian: bestia
• → Spanish: bestia
  • Papiamentu: bestia
• → Venetan: bestia
• → Yiddish: בעסטיע (bestye)

References

• “bestia”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “bestia”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• bestia in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
• bestia in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• “bestia”, in William Smith, editor (1848), A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, London: John Murray
• De Vaan, Michiel (2008) “bestia”, in Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 7), Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, page 71
• Ernout, Alfred, Meillet, Antoine (1985) “bestia”, in Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue latine: histoire des mots‎^[2] (in French), 4th edition, with additions and corrections of Jacques André, Paris: Klincksieck, published 2001, page 69b
• Walde, Alois, Hofmann, Johann Baptist (1938) “bestia”, in Lateinisches etymologisches Wörterbuch (in German), 3rd edition, volume I, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, page 102
• Pokorny, Julius (1959) “269”, in Indogermanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch [Indo-European Etymological Dictionary] (in German), volume 1, Bern, München: Francke Verlag, page 269

Old Galician-Portuguese

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈbes̺.tja/

Noun

bestia f (plural bestias)

1. Alternative form of besta

Papiamentu

Etymology

From Portuguese besta and Spanish bestia.

Noun

bestia

1. beast
2. animal

Polish

Etymology

Learned borrowing from Latin bēstia.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈbɛs.tja/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛstja
• Syllabification: bes‧tia

Noun

bestia f (diminutive bestyjka)

1. beast (non-human animal)

   Synonym: zwierz

2. (figurative) beast (person who behaves in a violent, antisocial, or uncivilized manner)

   Synonym: zwyrodnialec

Declension

Declension of bestia

	singular	plural
nominative	bestia	bestie
genitive	bestii	bestii/bestyj (archaic)
dative	bestii	bestiom
accusative	bestię	bestie
instrumental	bestią	bestiami
locative	bestii	bestiach
vocative	bestio	bestie

Derived terms

adjectives

• bestialny
• bestialski

nouns

• bestializm
• bestyjnik

verbs

• bestwić impf, zbestwić pf
• rozbestwiać impf, rozbestwić pf

Related terms

adverb

• bestialsko

nouns

• bestialność
• bestialstwo
• bestiarium
• bestiariusz

Further reading

• bestia in Wielki słownik języka polskiego, Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN
• bestia in Polish dictionaries at PWN

Romanian

Noun

bestia

1. definite nominative/accusative singular of bestie

Romansch

Alternative forms

• biestg (Rumantsch Grischun, Sursilvan)
• bestga (Rumantsch Grischun, Sursilvan)
• bes-cha (Puter, Vallader)

Etymology

From Latin bēstia.

Noun

bestia f (plural bestias)

1. (Sursilvan) animal

Synonyms

• (Rumantsch Grischun, Sursilvan, Sutsilvan, Surmiran, Vallader) animal
• (Sursilvan) tier

Spanish

Etymology

Probably borrowed from Latin bēstia. Compare English beast.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈbestja/ [ˈbes.t̪ja]

• Audio (Spain):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -estja
• Syllabification: bes‧tia

Noun

bestia f (plural bestias)

1. beast

   Synonym: bicho

2. animal

   Synonym: animal

Noun

bestia m or f by sense (plural bestias)

1. (derogatory) brute (person who acts stupidly)

   Synonym: bruto

Adjective

bestia m or f (masculine and feminine plural bestias)

1. (derogatory) brutal, coarse

   Él es demasiado bestia.

   He is too coarse.

Hyponyms

• bestia de carga

Derived terms

• a lo bestia
• bestia negra
• como bestias
• como una bestia

Related terms

• bestial
• bestiario

Descendants

• Papiamentu: bestia

Further reading

• “bestia”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 2024 December 10
• “bestia”, in Diccionario de americanismos [Dictionary of Americanisms] (in Spanish), Association of Academies of the Spanish Language [Spanish: Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española], 2010

Venetan

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin bestia. Doublet of bìsa.

Noun

bestia f (plural bestie)

1. animal
2. beast
3. insect