soul
UK /səʊl/ · US /soʊl/ noun, adjective, verb
Forms souls souling souled sowl soule
- noun (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.
- noun The spirit or essence of anything.
- noun Life, energy, vigor.
- noun Cultural consciousness and pride among people of African American heritage.
- noun A strong positive feeling of intense sensitivity and emotional fervor conveyed especially by African American performers.
- noun (music) Soul music.
- noun A person, especially as one among many.
- noun An individual life. “Fifty souls were lost when the ship sank.”
- adjective Characteristic of or pertaining to African American culture. “soul music”
- verb (obsolete, transitive) To endow with a soul or mind.
- verb To beg on All Soul's Day.
- verb (obsolete) To feed or nourish.
Synonyms
crux gist besoul ensoul psyche person individual someone somebody mortal soulfulness
Etymology
From Middle English soule, sowle, saule, sawle, from Old English sāwol (“soul, life, spirit, being”), from Proto-West Germanic *saiwalu, from Proto-Germanic *saiwalō (“soul”), of an uncertain ultimate origin (see there for further information).
Cognate with Scots saul, sowel (“soul”), Saterland Frisian Seele (“soul”), West Frisian siel (“soul”), Alemannic German Seel (“soul”), Central Franconian Siel (“soul”), Dutch ziel (“soul”), German Seele (“soul”), German Low German Seel (“soul”), Luxembourgish Séil (“soul, spirit”), Vilamovian zejł, zəjł, zyił (“soul”), Gothic 𐍃𐌰𐌹𐍅𐌰𐌻𐌰 (saiwala, “soul”). Scandinavian homonyms seem to have been borrowed from Old Saxon sēola. Modern Danish sjæl (“soul”), Icelandic sál (“soul”), Norwegian Bokmål sjel (“soul”), Norwegian Nynorsk sjel, sål (“soul”), Swedish själ (“soul”), Finnish sielu (“soul”) may have come from Old English sāwol.
Borrowed from French souler (“to satiate”).
Webster’s 1913
- adjective Sole. [Obs.] Chaucer.
- adjective Sole. [Obs.] Chaucer.
- verb To afford suitable sustenance. [Obs.] Warner.
- noun The spiritual, rational, and immortal part in man; that part of man which enables him to think, and which renders him a subject of moral government; --sometimes, in distinction from the higher nature, or spirit, of man, the so-called animal soul, that is, the seat of life, the sensitive affections and phantasy, exclusive of the voluntary and rational powers; --sometimes, in distinction from the mind, the moral and emotional part of man's nature, the seat of feeling, in distinction from intellect; --sometimes, the intellect only; the understanding; the seat of knowledge, as distinguished from f
Etymology [F. soûler to satiate. See Soil to feed.]
Etymology [OE. soule, saule, AS. sawel, sawl; akin to OFries. s, OS. s, D. ziel, G. seele, OHG. s, s, Icel. sala, Sw. själ, Dan. siæl, Goth. saiwala; of uncertain origin, perhaps akin to L. saeculum a lifetime, age (cf. Secular.)]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “soul”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details