Anima

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /ˈænɪmə/

Definitions

1. A fundamental energy or essence that imbues life into organisms
2. A distinctive spirit or character that defines individual personalities or groups
3. A vital force or principle that embodies liveliness and vitality in both beings and entities

Etymology: Latin "anima" originally meant moving air: wind, breath, the current of air that keeps a living body going. Its root is an ancient word for breathing and blowing, which also gave Greek "anemos" (wind), so the English word "anemone" and "anemometer" share a distant cousin with it. Before it named an inner spark, then, it named something you could feel on your face. Over time Latin speakers extended that sense from breath to the vital principle that breath signified, the thing that made a body alive. From there it came to mean the soul, the part of a person thought to survive the body. Latin also had "animus", close in form and sometimes treated as equivalent, meaning "mind" or "spirit", and the two words drew on each other's meanings for centuries. English borrowed the word directly from Latin, so the sense of life-giving essence arrived in its philosophical and theological coloring rather than through everyday speech. The English noun keeps that layered history: a single word that began as breath and ended as the principle of being alive.

Synonyms: soul, spirit, essence, psyche, life force

Antonyms: body, physicality, corporeality, materiality, tangibility