Metempsychoses

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. The philosophical concept referring to the transmigration of souls after death into new bodies or forms
2. The belief in the evolution of the soul as it moves through various physical existences across lifetimes
3. A doctrine that posits the continuous cycle of life, death, and rebirth, involving the transfer of consciousness between different entities

Etymology: "Metempsychoses" is the plural of "metempsychosis," and the singular is the older form to unpack. It comes from Koine Greek "metempsúkhōsis," built from "meta," meaning "after" or "change," and "empsúkhōsis," meaning "animating" or "ensouling," from "en" ("in") and "psukhē" ("soul" or "breath"). Together the literal sense is something like "a putting of the soul into another body," and the Greek word was adopted into Late Latin as "metempsychosis." The idea it names, that a soul passes from one body to another after death, long predates the word. Greek writers used the term for transmigration of souls, the doctrine associated with Pythagoras and Plato, and it reached English through Latin scholarly writing. Because the English word was taken from classical learning rather than spoken folk usage, it has always kept a technical, philosophical flavour.