u/Kind_Will_1669

"Creature"s semantic evolution?

In a lot of dictionaries including Oxford and Wiktionary, creature has two opposing meanings (among many more):

"A living ‘creature’ or created being, an animate being; an animal; often as distinct from ‘man’."

"A human being; a person or individual (as in ‘every creature in the room’). Common in the phrase ‘our fellow-creatures’. [So F. créature.]"

My question is since both seem to be attested in 1300s, which meaning would be prior to the other.

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u/Kind_Will_1669 — 20 hours ago