alma

Forms

alma f (plural almas)^[1] Early Leonese documents have anma (a charter of Sahagún, 1056, with the Latin ending anme); árima appears about 1300 in the Fuero General de Navarra, and arma in 13th-century Murcia and in modern Andalusian and Murcian speech.^[2] Álima is an old vulgarism (Juan del Encina) and is found in the Americas.^[3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Spanish alma, inherited from Latin anima (“air, breath; soul”).^[3][4][5][1] The learned form ánima lived beside the popular one and is still used in rustic speech, especially of the souls in purgatory.^[3][1] Nascentes explains the Ibero-Romance form through a form *alima, an old Spanish vulgarism, later syncopated.^[6]

The same Latin word is Portuguese alma, Galician alma, Catalan arma, Old Occitan anma, French âme and Romanian inimă (“heart”);^[7][8][1] Andalusian and Extremaduran speech has ⟨arma⟩.^[7][8][1]

The Latin noun is derived from animus (“mind, spirit”), from Proto-Italic *anamo- (“breath, spirit”) and Proto-Indo-European *h₂enh₁-mo- (“breath”); Ancient Greek ἄνεμος (ánemos, “wind”) is a cognate.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas finds the word first in the anonymous kharjas of the 11th and 12th centuries and then in the Cantar de mio Cid.^[3][4] The Cid speaks of losing los cuerpos e las almas “bodies and souls”, and de alma e de coraçon means “most willingly”.^[10][11][12]

Semantic evolution

Alfonsine prose already used alma for the human soul, for the life-giving principle of animals, for human life and for a person: Isidore was skilled en ganar almas a Dios “at winning souls for God”.^[13] An old pronominal use, ofrecer su alma “to offer oneself”, occurs in the Calila.^[3] Covarrubias in 1611 quoted Aristotle's definition and noted that alma often means a person, as in no hay un alma en la plaza.^[14] The Diccionario de Autoridades divided the soul into vegetative, sensitive and rational, and recorded alma de cántaro and alma de caballo.^[15]

The Academy's 1884 edition defined the soul as a spiritual, immortal substance, and the current DLE puts first the principle that organises the vegetative, sensitive and intellectual life.^[16][5] Technical senses name the core or hollow of an object, the bore of a gun, the tang of a sword and the sound post of a violin.^[5] The diminutive almilla (1539–1542) was a close-fitting doublet, so called because it clung to the body.^[3]

Timeline

• 11th–12th centuries – the anonymous kharjas.^[3][4]
• 1056 – anme in a charter of Sahagún.^[2]
• c. 1140 – the Cantar de mio Cid has almas and de alma e de coraçon.^[10][11]
• c. 1201 – the Disputa del alma y el cuerpo.^[10]
• 1270–1284 – the Estoria de España uses almas for persons.^[13]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija distinguishes the soul by which we live (anima), understand (animus) and remember (mens).^[17]
• 1611 – Covarrubias records alma in the sense “person”.^[14]
• 1726 – the Diccionario de Autoridades records alma de cántaro.^[15]
• 1884 – the Academy gives the etymology “Del lat. anima”.^[16]

Meanings

Noun

1. The principle that gives form to and organises vegetative, sensitive and intellectual life.^[5]
2. In some religions and cultures, the spiritual and immortal soul of human beings.^[5][1]
3. Human life.^[5][18]
4. A person, an inhabitant, mostly in the plural or in negative phrases: No había ni un alma en la playa.^[5][14]
5. The substance or chief part of something.^[5]
6. Liveliness, spirit, energy: Canta con mucha alma.^[5][18]
7. The person who drives or inspires something: Ella era el alma del grupo.^[5][18]
8. A core put inside a hollow piece to strengthen it; the hollow of some objects, especially the bore of a gun.^[5]
9. (engineering) The web of a beam, between its flanges.^[1]
10. The tang of a sword; the sound post of a violin or other bowed instrument.^[5]

Word family

• desalmado
• desalmar
• almilla

Related words

• ánima
• ánimo
• animal
• animar
• unánime
• Latin anima
• Portuguese alma

Usage notes

Because it begins with a stressed a, alma takes el and un in the singular (el alma, un alma), and the historical dictionary studies the variation with la alma, este alma and toda el alma.^[2] The DLE has a separate, rarely used alma “virgin, maiden”, from Hebrew ʿalmá.^[5][19] The Diccionario de Autoridades also recorded a poetic adjective alma “holy, nourishing”, from Latin almus, as in la alma ciudad de Roma.^[15]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (2021–), Tesoro de los diccionarios históricos de la lengua española (TDHLE): Diccionario histórico (1933–1936), its unpublished slips, Diccionario histórico (1960–1996), DHECan, DHECR, DHEVen, https://www.rae.es/tdhle, p. s.v. alma
3. ^ a b c d e f g Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 1, 179
4. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. alma
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Real Academia Española; Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2014–), Diccionario de la lengua española, 23rd ed., online version 23.8, https://dle.rae.es, p. s.v. alma
6. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. alma
7. ^ a b García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. art. 539
8. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. s.v. anima
9. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill, p. s.v. animus
10. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. alma
11. ^ a b Alonso Pedraz, Martín (1986), Diccionario medieval español: desde las Glosas Emilianenses y Silenses (s. X) hasta el siglo XV, 2 vols., Salamanca: Universidad Pontificia de Salamanca, p. 246
12. ^ Boggs, R. S.; Kasten, Lloyd; Keniston, Hayward; Richardson, H. B. (1946), Tentative Dictionary of Medieval Spanish, 2 vols., Chapel Hill, N.C., p. 28
13. ^ a b Kasten, Lloyd A.; Nitti, John J.; Gago Jover, Francisco (2002–), Diccionario de la prosa castellana del Rey Alfonso X, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies (electronic edition 2024), p. s.v. alma
14. ^ a b c Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastián de (1611), Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, Madrid: Luis Sánchez (Biblioteca Wordkers transcription, CC BY 4.0), p. 137
15. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 1, 222
16. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 54
17. ^ Lleal, Coloma (dir.), DICCA-XV: Diccionario del castellano del siglo XV en la Corona de Aragón, Barcelona: Universitat de Barcelona, Grup d'Estudis d'Història de la Llengua (GHCL), https://ghcl.ub.edu/diccaxv, p. s.v. alma
18. ^ a b c Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. alma
19. ^ Real Academia Española (2001), Diccionario de la lengua española, 22nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, p. s.v. alma