Id

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. The part of the mind in Freudian psychology that holds primitive instincts and desires ; a freshwater fish of the carp family found in European rivers
2. The unconscious drives in psychoanalytic theory that seek immediate gratification ; a European river fish related to the carp, also called the orfe
3. The primitive, instinctive layer of personality described by Freud ; a slender river fish of the minnow family native to Europe

Etymology: The word is the English rendering of Sigmund Freud's term for the most primitive layer of the mind, the seat of instinct and unconscious drive. Freud wrote in German, where he used the pronoun "es" ("it") as a noun for this concept. When his translator chose an English word for it, they reached for the same pronoun, and the impersonal "it" became a technical term in psychology. The choice was deliberate: "it" captures the sense that these drives feel alien, not owned by the self. The Latin "id" is a neuter pronoun meaning "that" or "it", which is why the English form looks so classical. Freud's German "es" and the Latin word both point to the same idea of an unnamed thing, which makes the translator's choice a neat reuse of an existing pronoun rather than a new coinage.