#featured
In Egypt, to offend or insult someone, a single word is enough: hayawan (animal). Calling someone an animal implies that the person lacks reason, intelligence, and, above all, lacks dignity. This is not the only example of how animals are degraded in language; many other terms, like homar (donkey) or kalb (dog), are also used to insult others. It is hard to pinpoint exactly when or how language became so deeply tied to the degradation of animals, but at its…
