These are either terms used on the site, or ones that are often encountered with dealing with these types of book.
Animal Fantasy: The literary term for a book starring sentient animals who still retain most of their animalness - as in they still walk on all fours, have instincts and generally behave in the manner of real animals, except that they're usually bit more intelligent.
Anthropomorphism: This term has two differnet definations, both of which are used on this site. The more common usage is thus: Giving to nonhumans (including plants and objects as well as animals) the so-called 'human' emotions and personality traits. Though many people, including the webmistress of this site, find fault with this usage in that we believe that animals have the ability to have personalities, thoughts, feelings and dreams, it is such a common term for these kind of books that I use it here. The second definition of "anthromorphic" is as follows: A more literal 'humanizing' of animals, as in having them walk on two feet, wear clothes, drive cars and go to malls, for example. Bugs Bunny, for example, is an anthropomorphic rabbit. The term is often shortened to "morph" and used as a suffix to denote a character is a being of this type: i.e., Bugs, the rabbitmorph, was sleeping in his hole one night.
Beast Tale: Generally used to refer to a folkloric or traditional tale, such as those told by Aesop, using animals to relate a moral to be applied to human existance.
Cats and Foxes: The two most common animals to appear in these types of books, especially in morphic form. Although when the books are well done they can add a lot to the anthropomorphic genre (for catmorphs, check out Godsfire by Cynthia Felice; for foxmorphs, check out When We Were Real by William Barton or A Whisper of Wings by Paul Kidd), they're so common they have gotten a bit cliche. (See Kitty Quests for more info).
Chimera: An unusual type of anthropomorphic character, chimeras, unlike "anthros" and "furries", are mostly human in appearence, but may have a few animal features, such as furry ears and tails. Not often encountered, they're most commonly seen in manga (the Tokyo Mew-Mew series, along with the Inu-Yasha series, are both good examples).
Funny Animal: A subclass of "morph" in which an anthropomorphic animal character is stipped of any instinct or anything to add "animalness" to their behavior, and are reduced to mere human caricatures who might as well be human for all intents and purposes. Very common in cartoons, they don't make for the best characters to use in novels.
Furry: A term with three definitions - the first two are the ones I actually use on this site. The first is a general term for anything - book, art, television show, video game, etc, featuring intelligent animals, both "morphic" and "nonmorphic". The second use is for "morphic" animal characters in general - Mickey Mouse, for example, is a furry. The creature doesn't have to have fur to be a furry. The third definition, and the one I don't really deal with here, is a term to describe an online phenomenon of groups of people who feel they either were meant to be an animal species (called their "fursona", they often draw themselves as an anthropomorphic version of the animal)or just feel a very close affinity to one. It's hard to define, as there's so many different types of people who identify with the "furry" title. I suggest going to another site if you want a really good explanation of the third usage of the term "furry/.".
Kitty Quest: A term for one of the most common of all types of animal fantasy stories - a story involving (obviously) cats on (usually magical) quests. Good examples are Victor DiGinti's Windrusher Series, Tad William's Tailchaser's Song, and Joy Smith Aiken's Solo's Journey. Although the best of them make for great stories, they are so common that they've become a bit of a cliche (see Cats and Foxes for more info).
Manga/Graphic Novel: Basically, a comic book published in book form. Manga refers to comics that are Japanese in orgin, while Graphic Novel refers to such publications from other countries. Many deal with sentinet animals and/or morphs.
Morph: Used as a suffix to denote an animal character is one who dresses, walks on two feet, etc.
Otherkin: Although it has a different definition when applied to the online community of this name, when it comes to anthropomorphic fiction, "otherkin" based books are ones featuring either "normal" or "morphic" versions of imaginary animals such as dragons and unicorns. Robin Wayne Bailey's Dragonkin series is a very good example.
Encounter any other anthropomorphic related terms you don't understand on the site? Drop me a line and let me know about it, and I'll add a definition here.
