I'm not sure that moving versus not moving is the right dichotomy, despite what the article says. "Animate" itself comes from the proto IE root *ani- meaning "

I'm not sure that moving versus not moving is the right dichotomy, despite what the article says. "Animate" itself comes from the proto IE root *ani- meaning "to breathe" so it could refer to things perceived of at the time as breathing, which includes most larger animals. But as others have noted, even in ancient times, the relationship between the gender of the word and the thing it represented in the real world was highly fossilized and often arbitrary outside of personal pronouns and a few animal names of agricultural importance (cow vs. bull).