To remove animal qualities from something; to strip of animal-like characteristics or to make less bestial or instinctive.
From 'de-' (remove) plus 'animalize' (to make animal-like, from Latin 'animalis'). 'Animalize' itself comes from 'animal' (from Latin 'animalis,' meaning 'having life or breath').
Philosophers and theologians used 'deanimalize' to describe civilization's process of making humans less driven by animal instincts—it reflects the old idea that society means taming our wild nature, though modern science questions this neat division.
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