Bestiary

Definition: Bestiary

Bestiary

Noun

1. A medieval book (usually illustrated) with allegorical and amusing descriptions of real and fabled animals.

Date "bestiary" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1980. (references)

Etymology: Bestiary \Bes"ti*a*ry\, noun. [from Late Latin expression bestiarium, from the Latin expression bestiarius pert. to beasts, from bestia beast: compare to the French expression bestiaire.]. (Websters 1913)

Commercial Usage: Bestiary

Domain	Title
Books	A Tolkien Bestiary (reference) An Egyptian Bestiary (reference) Any Small Thing Can Save You: A Bestiary (reference) Guide to Tolkien's World: A Bestiary (reference) Gurps Bestiary : Monsters, Beasts, and Companions (3rd Edition) (reference) (more book examples)

Music	A Bestiary Of...The Creatures [EXTRA TRACKS] [IMPORT] (reference) Bestiary (reference) (more classical music examples; more popular music examples)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

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Specialty Definition: Bestiary

(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)

Under the name bestiary comes a medieval book that is a collection of short descriptions of different real or imaginary animals, birds and even rocks that is often accompanied by a moralising explanation. This reflected the belief that the world itself was literally the Word of God, and that therefore every living thing had its own special meaning. For example, the pelican, which was believed to tear open its breast to bring its young to life with its own blood, was a living representation of Christ. This symbolism was well known at the time - animals depicted in religious paintings were not just animals, they were symbolic of other meanings in the painting. Bestiary animals were also found in church sculpture, where the familiar images would remind the viewer of the story and its aligorical meaning.

Bestiaries were particularly popular in England and France around the 12th century and were mainly compilations of earlier texts, especially the Physiologus and the Etymologiae of Isidore of Seville.

One important part of most bestiaries was the illustrations. They added a lot to the descriptions, serving then as an educational tool for the illiterate.

The most well-known bestiary of that time is the Aberdeen Bestiary. There are many others; over 50 manuscripts survive today.

T.H. White's translation of a medieval bestiary can be found on-line at http://libtext.library.wisc.edu/Bestiary/

More information on the Bestiary can be found at The Medieval Bestiary.

Two other online bestiaries can be found at the National Library of Denmark website: The Bestiaire of Philippe de Thaon and The Bestiary of Anne Walshe.

Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Bestiary."

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Image Slideshow: Bestiary

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Usage Frequency: Bestiary

"Bestiary" is generally used as a noun (singular) -- approximately 66.67% of the time. "Bestiary" is used about 12 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted)

Parts of Speech	Percent	Usage per 100 Million Words	Rank in English
Noun (singular)	66.67%	8	124,375
Adjective (general or positive)	25%	3	202,518
Noun (common)	8.33%	1	339,140
Total	100.00%	12	N/A

Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.

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Frequency of Internet Keywords: Bestiary

The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com.

Expression	Frequency per Day	Expression	Frequency per Day
bestiary	29	bestiary ff8	3
bestiary ever quest	16	bestiary fantasy final	3
bestiary daoc	10	bestiary runescape	3
bestiary illias	8	band bestiary metal	3
bestiary eq	7	bestiary fantasy final origin	2
8 bestiary fantasy final	6	age bestiary camelot dark	2
7 bestiary fantasy final	5	bestiary fantasy	2
bestiary fantasy final x	4	aberdeen bestiary	2
10 bestiary fantasy final	4	bestiary medieval	2
bestiary ever illias quest	4	bestiary morrowind	2
bestiary fantasy final vii	3	7 bestiary fantasy final vii	2
9 bestiary fantasy final	3
		7 bestiary fantasy final vii	2
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

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Modern Translations: Bestiary

Language		Translations for "bestiary"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses.
French		bestiaire. (various references)

German		bestiarium, bestiaire. (various references)

Italian		bestiario. (various references)

Pig Latin		estiarybay

Portuguese		conto sobre animais. (various references)

Spanish		bestiario. (various references)

Ukranian		середньовічне зібрання байок. (various references)
Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references.

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Misspellings: Bestiary

Misspellings
	"Bestiary" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: baktiari, Batsuuri, bestairy, bestari, bestia, Bestiaire, bestiarii. (additional references)
Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references).

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Rhyming with "Bestiary"

Words rhyming with "bestiary" (pronounced 'Bes"ti*a*ry'): Abbreviatory, Abditory, Abjuratory, Ablutionary, Absolutory, Absolvatory, Acceleratory, Acclamatory, Accusatory, Accustomary, Acetary, Acetimetry, Acidimetry, Acoumetry, Actino-chemistry, Actinometry, Actuary, Additionary, Additory, Adhortatory, Adiaphory, Adjuratory, Adjutory, Admaxillary, Adminiculary, Admissory, Admonitory, Adry, Adstrictory, Adulatory, Advisory, Advocatory, Aerometry, Affirmatory, Alary, Alchemistry, Alcoholometry, Alcoometry, Aldermanry, Aleatory, Aleberry, Alimentary, Alkalimetry, Allegory, Alleviatory, Allodiary, Allusory, Almonry, Almry, Altimetry. (additional references)

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Anagrams: Bestiary

Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams
	Direct Anagrams: sybarite.
	Words within the letters "a-b-e-i-r-s-t-y"
	-1 letter: baiters, barites, barytes, betrays, rebaits, terbias.
	-2 letters: airest, baiter, barest, barite, baryes, baryte, baster, bestir, betray, bister, bistre, biters, braise, breast, estray, rabies, rebait, satire, stayer, striae, tabers, terais, terbia, tribes, yarest, yerbas.
	-3 letters: abets, abris, abyes, airts, arise, artsy, aster, astir, baits, bares, barye, baser, baste, bates, bears, beast, beats, betas, biers.
	Words containing the letters "a-b-e-i-r-s-t-y"
	+1 letter: sybarites, ytterbias.
	+2 letters: babysitter, baptistery, subvariety.
	+3 letters: babysitters, erasability, keyboardist, reusability, subliteracy, subliterary, trisyllable.
	+4 letters: bathymetries, cybernations, desirability, disreputably, keyboardists, plebiscitary, presbyterial, presbyterian, separability, severability, shareability, trisyllables.
	+5 letters: bacteriolyses, bacteriolysis, discreditably, measurability, mensurability, observability, obstetrically, overstability, perishability, presbyterials, reasonability, resectability, sinterability, solderability, spreadability, subordinately, subventionary.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro.