soul
Meanings
- 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.
- The spirit or essence of anything.
- Life, energy, vigor.
- Cultural consciousness and pride among people of African American heritage.
- A strong positive feeling of intense sensitivity and emotional fervor conveyed especially by African American performers.
- Soul music.
- A person, especially as one among many.
- An individual life.
- A kind of submanifold involved in the soul theorem of Riemannian geometry.
- Characteristic of or pertaining to African American culture.
- To endow with a soul or mind.
- To beg on All Soul's Day.
- To feed or nourish.
Pronunciation
Word forms
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). Cognates 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.