English → Latin
“beast” in Latin
bēluabeast, monster; brutebēstiaa beastpecusA group of large domestic animals: a herd of cattle, horses, or donkeys; such animals in a collective sense: cattle and feruswild, savage, fierce, cruel; uncivilized, uncultivated; untamed, roughbēstioladiminutive of bēstia; a little creature or beast
The English word beast itself goes back to Latin bēstia.
Riddle & Arnold A Copious and Critical English–Latin Lexicon, 1864
beast
bellua: bestia: pecus (opposed to man; bellua and pecus, with intellectual reference, as devoid of reason; bestia and fera, with moral reference, as wild, and hostile to man; bellua denotes, particularly, agreat unwieldy animal, as the elephant, whale, sea monsters; pecus, a domestic animal, particularly the less intelligent, as a bullock, sheep, opposed to the wild; bestia, a destructive animal, particularly those that are ravenous, as the tiger, wolf, etc.; fera, a wild animal of the wood, as the stog, wolf, etc., opposed to domestic animals, Döderlein): a little beast, bestiola; animalculum: like a beast, belluarum more; pecudum ritu: a beast of burden, jumentum: to live like a beast, beluinis voluptatibus se dedere: the life of a beast, vita spurcissima: the beast-market, forum pecuarium: a tax on beasts, tributum in pecus impositum.
A beast, (fig.), homo spurcus, immundus: bellua (stupid animal), bestia: or by adjective, ferus, immanis (savage): spurcus (or spurcissimus): immundus (filthy, foul). Vid: Belluinus or beluinusis late.
Quick answer
- What is the Latin word for beast?
- The usual Latin words for “beast” are bēlua, bēstia, pecus; also ferus, bēstiola. The right choice depends on the sense; see the distinctions below.
Entry from J. E. Riddle & T. K. Arnold, A Copious and Critical English–Latin Lexicon (rev. C. Anthon, New York: Harper, 1864), digitised by Fergus J. P. Walsh, CC BY-SA 4.0; Latin markup adapted by latindictionary.co.