 Many of these changes came with the introduction of Old Norse and Norman French words, while others fell away due to natural evolution.Modern English has no Germanic words for 'animal' in the general sense of 'non-human being'.Old English "dēor", "gesceaft", "gesceap", "nēat" and "iht" were all eclipsed by 'animal', 'beast', 'creature' and 'critter'.