Soul
Pronunciation
Origin 1
From Middle English, from Old English sÄwol ("soul, life, spirit, being"), from Proto-Germanic *saiwalÅ ("soul"). Cognate with North Frisian siel, sial ("soul"), Dutch ziel ("soul"), German Seele ("soul") (the Scandinavian forms are borrowings from the Old English).
Alternative forms
- sowl archaic
Full definition of soul
Noun
soul
(plural souls)- (religion, folklore) The spirit or essence of a person usually thought to consist of one's thoughts and personality. Often believed to live on after the person's death.
- 1836, Hans Christian Andersen (translated into English by Mrs. H. B. Paull in 1872), The Little Mermaid"Among the daughters of the air," answered one of them. "A mermaid has not an immortal soul, nor can she obtain one unless she wins the love of a human being. On the power of another hangs her eternal destiny. But the daughters of the air, although they do not possess an immortal soul, can, by their good deeds, procure one for themselves.
- 1898, Winston Churchill, The Celebrity Chapter 4, No matter how early I came down, I would find him on the veranda, smoking cigarettes, or.... And at last I began to realize in my harassed soul that all elusion was futile, and to take such holidays as I could get, when he was off with a girl, in a spirit of thankfulness.
- The spirit or essence of anything.
- 1918, W. B. Maxwell, The Mirror and the Lamp Chapter 22, From another point of view, it was a place without a soul. The well-to-do had hearts of stone; the rich were brutally bumptious; the Press, the Municipality, all the public men, were ridiculously, vaingloriously self-satisfied.
- Life, energy, vigor.
- YoungThat he wants algebra he must confess;
But not a soul to give our arms success. - (music) Soul music.
- A person, especially as one among many.
- An individual life.Fifty souls were lost when the ship sank.
Derived terms
Verb
- (obsolete, transitive) To endue with a soul; to furnish with a soul or mind.
Origin 2
French souler ("to satiate").
Verb
- (obsolete) To afford suitable sustenance.