A being or person that is partially brutal or uncivilized, showing both human reason and animal-like behavior.
Combines 'demi-' with 'brute' from Latin 'brutus' meaning 'irrational' or 'animal-like.' Renaissance writers used this to describe people who seemed to lack full human civilility.
Shakespeare and his contemporaries used 'demibrute' as an insult implying someone had lost the qualities that made humans superior—showing how Renaissance thinkers believed reason and civility were what truly separated humans from animals!
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