anthropomorphism

noun

Etymology: Coined in the mid-1700s. From Ancient Greek ἄνθρωπος (ánthrōpos, “man, human”) and μορφή (morphḗ, “form, shape”). By surface analysis, anthropo- + -morphism.

1. The ascribing or attribution of human characteristics and behaviors to entities.

   “Literature is full of examples of anthropomorphism, especially in children’s stories, from The Wind in the Willows to Watership Down.”

2. The ascribing or attribution of human characteristics to divine nonhuman entities.

   “Only an over-idealized Hellenism may properly be acutely sensitive to the anthropomorphism of gods, when, in speech and action, they display their human qualities.”