What is a pet?

PETS are animals kept by humans for companionship. An animal only becomes a pet because its human owner chooses to keep it as one. There are no pets in nature. A ‘pet’ is thus an artificial, man-made category.

Although I use the English word ‘pet’ throughout this book, there was no comparable term in the medieval period. In most sources, both in Latin and the vernacular, the pet is identified by a term defining its exact species, such as dog (canis) or cat (muriceps). The English term ‘pet’ in the sense of a companion animal did not come into use until the sixteenth century, and even then only in Scotland and the north of England. The Oxford English Dictionary records the earliest use in reference to a pet animal in 1539 – ‘for the keeping of certane Pettis’ – these animals were parrots and monkeys, among others.

The Oxford English Dictionary defines a pet as ‘An animal (typically one which is domestic or tame) kept for pleasure or companionship’, which perhaps does not fully capture the medieval concept. In Man and the Natural World: Changing Attitudes in England, 1500–1800, Keith Thomas defines a pet as an animal that was kept indoors, was not eaten and was given a name; these useful criteria may also be applied to the medieval pet.