animacy

From animate + -cy.

animacy (usually uncountable, plural animacies)

1. (biology) The state of being alive.

   Antonym: inanimacy

   • 2011, Seppo Kittilä, Katja Västi, Jussi Ylikoski, Case, Animacy and Semantic Roles‎^[1], page 6:

     These may differ radically in their linguistic animacy, as briefly discussed above, without this having any consequences for their biological animacy.

2. (linguistics) In some languages, the characteristic of a noun, dependent on its living or sentient nature, which affects grammatical features (it can modify verbs used with the noun, affect the noun's declension, etc.).

• Mayniac