aura

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English aura,^[2][3] borrowed from Latin aura (“breeze, wind, the upper air”),^[4][5][6] from Ancient Greek αὔρα (aúra, “breath, breeze, air in motion”),^[4][5][7][8] which Klein and Ayto relate to ἀήρ (aḗr, “air”), the source of air.^[7][9] Etymonline takes the Greek word from Proto-Indo-European *aur-, from the root Proto-Indo-European *wer- (“to raise, lift, hold suspended”),^[5][2] and Merriam-Webster takes it to be akin to Old English weder, the source of weather.^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

A gentle breeze: before 1398, in John Trevisa's translation of Bartholomaeus Anglicus' De Proprietatibus Rerum.^[4][6]

Semantic evolution

Etymonline notes that in Latin and Greek the word was already used metaphorically, of changeable events and of popular favour, and that all the modern English uses are figurative.^[5] The Middle English "gentle breeze" is now only archaic or poetic.^[4][11] The current senses date from the 18th century:^[3][12][13] a subtle emanation from a substance, such as the smell of flowers, from 1732, in Bishop Berkeley's Alciphron,^[4][6][5] and in pathology, from 1783, the sensation, as of cold air rising to the head, that warns of an epileptic or hysterical attack.^[4] From 1737, in a piece by Benjamin Franklin, until 1818 it was also the "electrical atmosphere" around a charged body.^[4] The figurative "distinctive impression" of a person or place followed in 1859,^[4][6][5] and in spiritualism, from 1870, a supposed emanation surrounding living beings and carrying their essence;^[4][5] Etymonline also finds a mystical use in Swedenborgian writings by 1847.^[5] Merriam-Webster, which dates the word's first use to 1686, also records a luminous glow around a person or thing, a nimbus.^[10]

Timeline

• before 1398 – a gentle breeze (Trevisa).^[4][6]
• 1732 – a subtle emanation from a substance, such as an odour (Berkeley).^[4][6]
• 1737 – an electrical atmosphere (obsolete by 1818).^[4]
• 1783 – a warning sensation before an epileptic attack.^[4]
• 1847 – a mystical use in Swedenborgian writings.^[5]
• 1859 – figuratively, a distinctive impression of character.^[4][6]
• 1870 – in spiritualism, an emanation surrounding a living being.^[4][5]

Meanings

Noun

1. A distinctive atmosphere or quality that seems to surround a person, place or thing: The old library had an aura of quiet authority.^[10][14]
2. A subtle sensory impression, such as a scent, given off by something.^[10][14][4]
3. In parapsychology, an invisible emanation said to surround a person or object and to be seen by people of unusual sensitivity; also a luminous glow, a nimbus.^[14][10][4]
4. (pathology) A sensation, such as flashes of light or a noise in the ears, that comes just before an attack of epilepsy or a migraine.^[14][10][4]
5. (archaic) A gentle breeze.^[4][11]

Related words

• air
• soar
• weather

Usage notes

The plural is usually auras, and also, rarely, aurae.^[10][14][11]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
3. ^ a b Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b c d e f g Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
7. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
8. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
9. ^ Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
10. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
11. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
12. ^ Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
13. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
14. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins