Etymology

soul

S1O1U1L1

Today it means: 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. Full definition →

Middle English soule ← Old English sāwol ← Proto-West Germanic *saiwalu
Ask AI about its historyChatGPTClaudePerplexityGoogle AIGrok

soul · noun, adjective, verb1

  1. Proto-Germanic*saiwalō
  2. Proto-West Germanic*saiwalu
  3. Old Englishsāwol
  4. Middle Englishsoule
  5. English todaysoul

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.

soul · verb2

  1. French · borrowed fromsouler
  2. French · borrowed fromsouler
  3. English todaysoul

Borrowed from French souler (“to satiate”).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.