Metazoan

Etymology

The word animal comes from the Latin noun animal of the same meaning, which is itself derived from Latin animalis 'having breath or soul'. The biological definition includes all members of the kingdom Animalia. In colloquial usage, the term animal is often used to refer only to nonhuman animals. The term metazoa is derived from Ancient Greek μεταmeta 'after' (in biology, the prefix meta- stands for 'later') and ζῷᾰzōia 'animals', plural of ζῷονzōion 'animal'. A metazoan is any member of the group Metazoa.