Exanimate

Part of speech: adjective

Pronunciation: /ɪɡˈzænɪmɪt/

Definitions

1. Lifeless or lacking in animation or vigor
2. lacking spirit or vitality, appearing drained of life force and energy
3. devoid of liveliness or animation, presenting an appearance of death or exhaustion

Etymology: Exanimate comes from Latin "exanimatus," the past participle of "exanimare," meaning "to deprive of breath or life." That verb is built from "ex-" ("out of") and "anima," meaning "breath," "soul," or "spirit." So the word's core image is literal: a creature whose breath has gone out of it. The Latin verb was itself formed from the adjective, a pattern that makes the word feel like a compound of breathlessness rather than a simple synonym for "dead." The English adjective keeps that sense of a life that has been drained away. It is a formal, rarely used word, and it tends to appear in literary or poetic contexts where a writer wants the body's breath, rather than just the state of being dead, to be the focus. The shared root "anima" also connects it to words such as "animate" and "animal," which all trace back to the same Latin idea of breath and life.

Synonyms: lifeless, inanimate, dead, spiritless, dispirited

Antonyms: animated, lively, vivacious, spirited, energetic