Meaning

adjective belonging to the class of nouns that denote living beings

adjective endowed with animal life as distinguished from plant life

adjective endowed with feeling and unstructured consciousness; - T.E.Lawrence

originEtymology tree English animate Proto-Indo-European *-yósder. Proto-Italic *-āzijos Latin -āriusnom. Latin -āriusbor. Proto-Germanic *-ārijaz Proto-West Germanic *-ārī Old English -ere Middle English -ere English -er English animater From animate + -er.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 3.0