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''bestiary'' ▫ᴱᴺ｜Definition｜1st｜20250825221139-00-⌔
bestiary - Wiktionary, the free dictionary
English
Noun
bestiary (plural bestiaries)
- A medieval treatise of various real or imaginary animals.
- ✤ Back in the 60s, Robin Boyd told us how ugly Australian architecture was. As his valediction, he has left us a bestiary of ugly Australians.1
- ✤ 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
- A collection of various beasts, depicted in art, literature, or the like.
- ✤ More commonly known to the English speaker as “Genie”; the “dijn” is a powerful demon in the bestiary of the Middle East, mistaken in this instance for the Buddha.3
- ✤ Later artworks showed many animals and gods, some of which were clearly identified with heavenly bodies. […] Each shows a splendidly vivacious bestiary and pantheon, including the Sun-Moon-Venus symbols and a lion-versus-bull combat scene with an eagle or man-bull joining in.4
- (gaming) A list or guidebook of the monsters to be found in a roleplaying game.
Etymology
Borrowed from Medieval Latin bēstiārium, from Latin bēstia (“beast, animal”). By surface analysis, beast + -ary.
Pronunciation
Printed 2026-06-28.
(echo:: @ ⌗)
Link to original Footnotes
16 Jun 1972, Papua New Guinea Post-Courier, Port Moresby, page 22, column 1: ↩
1982, George Plimpton, A Sports Bestiary, McGraw-Hill Companies, →ISBN: ↩
1 Mar 1996, The Australian Jewish News, Melbourne, page 25, column 3: ↩
1998, John H. Roger, “Origins of the ancient constellations: I. The Mesopotamian traditions”, in Journal of the British Astronomy Association, volume 108, number 1, page 10, column 2: ↩
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