âme

Pronunciation

• IPA: /am/^[1]
• IPA: /ɑm/^[1]
• IPA: /aːm/^[1]

Forms

âme f (plural âmes)^[1] Old French anima (10th century), aneme (11th century), anme (Chanson de Roland), then ame; also alme, aume and arme, the last dropped because it clashed with arme.^[2][3][4] The circumflex dates from 1752.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old French anme, inherited from Latin anima (“breath, air; life; soul”).^{[2][3][5][4][6]} Rey traces it to an Indo-European root also seen in Sanskrit अनिति (aniti, “he breathes”) and Ancient Greek ἄνεμος (ánemos, “wind”).^[2][7] Latin distinguished “animus”, the higher principle opposed to the body, from “anima”, which rendered Ancient Greek ψυχή (psukhḗ), “anima” alone passed into Church Latin and the Romance languages.^[2] Bloch and Wartburg note that its religious and philosophical use kept it under the influence of written Latin.^[3]

Cognate with Romanian inimă, Italian anima, Occitan amo, Catalan ànima, Spanish alma and Portuguese alma.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

As anima it is in the Sequence of Saint Eulalia (about 880) and the Life of Saint Leger; its first senses are religious: the immaterial, immortal part of a person, and the soul parted from the body at death.^[4][8][2]

Semantic evolution

French took over the Latin senses and developed them in philosophy and science, with the scholastic distinctions between the sensitive, rational and vegetative soul (13th century).^[2][7] From the 13th century, and again from the 16th, it meant a living person, especially after a population figure (une ville de dix mille âmes); in the 16th century the moral conscience (force d'âme) and the mainspring of a thing; from d'Aubigné, the person who leads a group (l'âme du complot).^[2]

Concrete technical senses are the bore of a gun and the soundpost of a violin.^[1] Many phrases keep the religious sense: rendre l'âme “to die”, âme en peine, âme damnée, vendre son âme au diable.^[1][8] Revolutionary pamphlets of 1790 have foutre l'âme à l'envers “to kill”.^[9]

Timeline

• c. 880 – Anima, Sequence of Saint Eulalia.^[4][8]
• c. 1050 – Aneme, Life of Saint Alexis.^[4][3]
• c. 1100 – Anme, Chanson de Roland.^[2][7]
• 13th century – The form ame, “a living person”.^[4][2]
• 16th century – Force d'âme.^[2]
• 1752 – The spelling âme.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. (religion, philosophy) The soul, the spiritual principle of a person, thought of as immortal: prier pour l'âme de quelqu'un.^[8][1]
2. The seat of thought and feeling; heart, mind: état d'âme, la mort dans l'âme.^[1][8]
3. A person: pas âme qui vive, une ville de dix mille âmes.^[1][2]
4. The moving spirit of a group or enterprise: l'âme du complot.^[2][4]
5. (weaponry) The bore of a gun.^[1]
6. (music) The soundpost of a violin.^[1]
7. Âme sœur: a soulmate.^[1]

Related words

• animal
• animer
• magnanime
• unanime
• Latin anima

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
3. ^ a b c d Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
4. ^ a b c d e f g Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
5. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
6. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 24, 581b
7. ^ a b c Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
8. ^ a b c d e f Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
9. ^ Quemada, Bernard, ed. (1959–2006), Datations et documents lexicographiques (Base historique du vocabulaire français, BHVF), Paris: Klincksieck / CNRS / Champion; ATILF