animate (adj.)

A term used in the GRAMMATICAL classification of words (especially NOUNS) to refer to a subclass whose REFERENCE is to persons and animals, as opposed to inanimate entities and concepts. In some languages, distinctions of animateness are made MORPHOLOGICALLY, as a contrast in GENDER. In English, the distinction can be made only on SEMANTIC grounds, apart from a certain correspondence with personal and relative PRONOUNS (he/she/who v. it/which). In adjectives expressing the concept ‘old’, for example, elderly is animate, antique inanimate; old is neutral, being applicable to either category.