âme
Pronunciation
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
- (religion, philosophy) The soul, the spiritual principle of a person, thought of as immortal: prier pour l'âme de quelqu'un.[8][1]
- The seat of thought and feeling; heart, mind: état d'âme, la mort dans l'âme.[1][8]
- A person: pas âme qui vive, une ville de dix mille âmes.[1][2]
- The moving spirit of a group or enterprise: l'âme du complot.[2][4]
- (weaponry) The bore of a gun.[1]
- (music) The soundpost of a violin.[1]
- Âme sœur: a soulmate.[1]
Related words
References
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
- ^ 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
- ^ a b c d Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
- ^ 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
- ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
- ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 24, 581b
- ^ a b c Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
- ^ a b c d e f Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
- ^ Quemada, Bernard, ed. (1959–2006), Datations et documents lexicographiques (Base historique du vocabulaire français, BHVF), Paris: Klincksieck / CNRS / Champion; ATILF