Noun: bestiary
| Singular | bestiary |
| Plural | bestiaries |
Sample Sentences
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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. [16 Jun 1972, Papua New Guinea Post-Courier, Port Moresby, page 22, column 1:]
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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, […] [1982, George Plimpton, A Sports Bestiary, McGraw-Hill Companies, →ISBN:]
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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. [1 Mar 1996, The Australian Jewish News, Melbourne, page 25, column 3:]
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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. [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:]
Nouns inflected like bestiary
clitoridectomy,
royal jelly,
whoopsy,
surrogacy,
urinary,
rastrography,
renoscopy,
sourtop blueberry,
forcible entry,
superficiary,
lipidosity,
potability,
phonography,
hyperproperty,
greenery,
conjugality,
ring singularity,
Brittany,
ignobility,
obscurity, etc. (List truncated at 20 nouns)
Etymology
Borrowed from Medieval Latin bēstiārium, from Latin bēstia (“beast, animal”). By surface analysis, beast + -ary. See: Latin Nouns '
bēstia'.