# soul
## English
### Etymology 1

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 uncertain ultimate origin (see there for further information). Cognate with Scots saul, sowel (“soul”), North Frisian siel, sial (“soul”), Saterland Frisian Seele (“soul”), West Frisian siel (“soul”), Dutch ziel (“soul”), German Seele (“soul”) Scandinavian homonyms seem to have been borrowed from Old Saxon *siala. Modern Danish sjæl, Swedish själ, Norwegian sjel, Icelandic sál, Finnish sielu may have come from Old English sāwol.

#### Alternative forms

* sowl (archaic)
* soule (obsolete)

#### Pronunciation

* enPR: sōl
** (Received Pronunciation) IPA: /səʊl/, [sɔʊɫ], [sɒʊɫ]
** (General American) IPA: /soʊl/
*** Audio (California):(file)
** (Canada) IPA: [so̞ːɫ]
** (General Australian) IPA: /səʉl/, /sɐʉl/
** (New Zealand) IPA: /sɐʉl/
* Rhymes: -əʊl
* Homophones: Seoul, sole, sowl

#### Noun

soul (countable and uncountable, plural souls)
* (religion, folklore) 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.
** 1836, Hans Christian Andersen (translated into English by Mrs. H. B. Paull in 1872), The Little Mermaid
    "Among the daughters of the air," answered one of them. "A mermaid has not an immortal soul, nor can she obtain one unless she wins the love of a human being. On the power of another hangs her eternal destiny. But the daughters of the air, although they do not possess an immortal soul, can, by their good deeds, procure one for themselves.
** 1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter IV, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC, page 46:No matter how early I came down, I would find him on the veranda, smoking cigarettes, or […] . And at last I began to realize in my harassed soul that all elusion was futile, and to take such holidays as I could get, when he was off with a girl, in a spirit of thankfulness.
** 2015 September 15, Toby Fox, Undertale, Linux, Microsoft Windows, OS X:Flowey: See that heart? That is your SOUL, the very culmination of your being!
* The spirit or essence of anything.
** 1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter XXII, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:From another point of view, it was a place without a soul. The well-to-do had hearts of stone; the rich were brutally bumptious; the Press, the Municipality, all the public men, were ridiculously, vaingloriously self-satisfied.
** 1928, Franklin D. Roosevelt, The Happy Warrior Alfred E. Smith‎, Houghton Mifflin, →OCLC, →OL, pages 36–37:It is possible with only these qualities for a man to be a reasonably efficient President, but there is one thing more needed to make him a great President. It is that quality of soul which makes a man loved by little children, by dumb animals, that quality of soul which makes him a strong help to all those in sorrow or in trouble, that quality which makes him not merely admired, but loved by all the people - the quality of sympathetic understanding of the human heart, of real interest in one's fellow men.
* Life, energy, vigor.
** 1725, [Edward Young], “Satire III. To the Right Honourable Mr. Dodington.”, in Love of Fame, the Universal Passion. In Seven Characteristical Satires, 4th edition, London: […] J[acob] and R[ichard] Tonson […], published 1741, →OCLC, page 52:That he vvants Algebra he muſt confeſs. / But not a ſoul to give our arms ſucceſs.
* (music) Soul music.
* A person, especially as one among many.
** 18 January 1915, D. H. Lawrence, letter to William Hopkin
    I want to gather together about twenty souls and sail away from this world of war and squalor and found a little colony where there shall be no money but a sort of communism as far as necessaries of life go, and some real decency.
* An individual life.
    Fifty souls were lost when the ship sank.
* (mathematics) A kind of submanifold involved in the soul theorem of Riemannian geometry.

##### Quotations

For quotations using this term, see Citations:soul.

##### Synonyms

* (spirit or essence of anything): crux, gist; See also Thesaurus:gist
* (a person): See also Thesaurus:person

##### Derived terms

* after one's own soul
* album-oriented soul
* All Souls' Day
* bare one's soul
* bless my soul
* blue-eyed soul
* body and soul
* brevity is the soul of wit
* brown-eyed soul
* cut away one's soul
* dark night of the soul
* dead soul
* ensoul
* God rest her soul
* God rest his soul
* God rest their soul
* heart and soul
* hip hop soul
* keep body and soul together
* keep soul and body together
* kindred soul
* lay bare one's soul
* life and soul of the party
* Lord rest his soul
* lost soul
* may God have mercy on your soul
* neo soul
* neo-soul
* northern soul
* object-soul
* old soul
* pour one's soul out
* pour out one's soul
* psychedelic soul
* rest his soul
* rest one's soul
* sell one's soul
* sell one's soul to the Devil
* sell one's soul to the devil
* shiver my soul
* soul-ale
* soul bell
* soul-blues
* soul blues
* soul brother
* soul-cake
* soul cake
* soul conjecture
* soul-crushing
* soul-crushingly
* soul-destroying
* souled
* soul food
* soul fragment
* soulful
* soulfully
* soulfulness
* soulish
* soul kiss
* soul knell
* soullike
* soul loss
* soul-love
* soulmate, soul mate
* soul music
* soul patch
* soul-search
* soul search
* soul-searcher
* soul searching
* soul-searching
* soul-shaking
* soul sister
* soul-stirring
* soul-sucking
* soul theorem
* soul tie
* the eyes are the window to the soul
* tripartite soul
* upon my soul
* white soul
* world-soul
* world soul
* world's soul
English terms starting with “soul”

##### Related terms

* mind
* spirit

##### Descendants

* → German: Soul
* → Esperanto: soulo
* → French: soul
* → Hungarian: soul
* → Italian: soul
* → Japanese: ソウル
* → Polish: soul
* → Portuguese: soul
* → Romanian: soul
* → Russian: со́ул (sóul)
* → Scots: sowel
* → Spanish: soul
* → Ukrainian: со́ул (sóul)

##### Translations

    The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

#### Verb

soul (third-person singular simple present souls, present participle souling, simple past and past participle souled)
* (obsolete, transitive) To endow with a soul or mind.
    Synonyms: besoul, ensoul
* To beg on All Soul's Day.
    Coordinate term: trick-or-treat
** 1981, Geoffrey Scard, Squire and tenant: life in rural Cheshire, 1760-1900, page 93:All Souls' Day was celebrated by souling, a custom going back to pre-Reformation days: soul cakers and mummers toured the village begging for a soul cake — a plain, round, flat cake seasoned with spices.

##### Derived terms

* besoul
* dark night of the soul

### Etymology 2

Borrowed from French souler (“to satiate”).

#### Verb

soul (third-person singular simple present souls, present participle souling, simple past and past participle souled)
* (obsolete) To feed or nourish.
** 1741, unknown [formerly attributed to Daniel Defoe], The Life and Adventures of Mrs. Christian Davies, the British Amazon, commonly called Mother Ross: […], 2nd edition, London: Printed for R[ichard] Montagu, →OCLC, part II, page 76:During my Stay here, I was going to take Pot-Luck with Colonel Ingram, and accidentally meeting him in the Way, I told him I deſigned to ſoul a Plate with him, [...]

### References

* ↑ “soul”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
* “soul”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
* soul in Keywords for Today: A 21st Century Vocabulary, edited by The Keywords Project, Colin MacCabe, Holly Yanacek, 2018.
* William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “soul”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.

### Anagrams

* Luso-, luso-

## Czech
### Noun

soul m inan
* soul (music style)

#### Declension

This noun needs an inflection-table template.

### Further reading

* “soul”, in Kartotéka Novočeského lexikálního archivu (in Czech)

## Finnish
### Etymology

Borrowed from English soul.

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /ˈsou̯l/, [ˈs̠o̞u̯l]
* Rhymes: -oul
* Hyphenation: soul

### Noun

soul
* soul music

#### Declension

Possessive forms of soul (Kotus type 5/risti, no gradation) :
first-person singular possessor
singular
plural
nominative
soulini
accusative
nom.
soulini
gen.
soulini
genitive
soulini
partitive
souliani
inessive
soulissani
elative
soulistani
illative
souliini
adessive
soulillani
ablative
souliltani
allative
soulilleni
essive
soulinani
translative
soulikseni
abessive
soulittani
instructive
comitative
second-person singular possessor
singular
plural
nominative
soulisi
accusative
nom.
soulisi
gen.
soulisi
genitive
soulisi
partitive
souliasi
inessive
soulissasi
elative
soulistasi
illative
souliisi
adessive
soulillasi
ablative
souliltasi
allative
soulillesi
essive
soulinasi
translative
souliksesi
abessive
soulittasi
instructive
comitative
first-person plural possessor
singular
plural
nominative
soulimme
accusative
nom.
soulimme
gen.
soulimme
genitive
soulimme
partitive
souliamme
inessive
soulissamme
elative
soulistamme
illative
souliimme
adessive
soulillamme
ablative
souliltamme
allative
soulillemme
essive
soulinamme
translative
souliksemme
abessive
soulittamme
instructive
comitative
second-person plural possessor
singular
plural
nominative
soulinne
accusative
nom.
soulinne
gen.
soulinne
genitive
soulinne
partitive
soulianne
inessive
soulissanne
elative
soulistanne
illative
souliinne
adessive
soulillanne
ablative
souliltanne
allative
soulillenne
essive
soulinanne
translative
souliksenne
abessive
soulittanne
instructive
comitative
third-person possessor
singular
plural
nominative
soulinsa
accusative
nom.
soulinsa
gen.
soulinsa
genitive
soulinsa
partitive
souliaan souliansa
inessive
soulissaan soulissansa
elative
soulistaan soulistansa
illative
souliinsa
adessive
soulillaan soulillansa
ablative
souliltaan souliltansa
allative
soulilleen soulillensa
essive
soulinaan soulinansa
translative
soulikseen souliksensa
abessive
soulittaan soulittansa
instructive
comitative

#### Derived terms

* soul-musiikki

### Further reading

* “soul”, in Kielitoimiston sanakirja [Dictionary of Contemporary Finnish]‎ (in Finnish) (online dictionary, continuously updated), Kotimaisten kielten keskuksen verkkojulkaisuja 35, Helsinki: Kotimaisten kielten tutkimuskeskus (Institute for the Languages of Finland), 2004–, retrieved 2023-07-03

### Anagrams

* Sulo, solu, sulo, ulos

## Franco-Provençal
### Adjective

soul (Piemontais)
* Alternative form of sol (“alone”)

### References

* soul in Lo trèsor Arpitan – on arpitan.eu

## French
### Etymology 1

See saoul.

#### Pronunciation

* IPA: /su/
* Homophones: sou, souls, sous

#### Adjective

soul (feminine soule, masculine plural souls, feminine plural soules)
* post-1990 spelling of soûl, itself an alternative form of saoul (“drunk”)

##### Derived terms

* souler

### Etymology 2

Borrowed from English soul.

#### Pronunciation

* IPA: /sol/, /sul/

#### Noun

soul f (uncountable)
* soul, soul music

### Further reading

* “soul”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

## Hungarian
### Etymology

Borrowed from English soul.

### Pronunciation

* IPA: [ˈsoːl] (phonetic respelling: szól)
* Hyphenation: soul
* Homophone: szól
* Rhymes: -oːl

### Noun

soul (usually uncountable, plural soulok)
* (music) soul music

#### Derived terms

* soulzene

## Italian
### Etymology

Borrowed from English soul.

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /ˈsol/, (careful style) /ˈsowl/
* Rhymes: -ol, (careful style) -owl
* Hyphenation: (careful style) sóul

### Noun

soul m or f (invariable)
* soul music

### References

* ↑ soul in Luciano Canepari, Dizionario di Pronuncia Italiana (DiPI)

### Anagrams

* suol

## Middle English
### Noun

soul
* Alternative form of soule

## Old French
### Adjective

soul m (oblique and nominative feminine singular soule)
* Alternative form of sol

#### Declension
## Polish
### Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from English soul, from Middle English soule, sowle, saule, sawle, from Old English sāwol, from Proto-West Germanic *saiwalu, from Proto-Germanic *saiwalō.

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /ˈsɔwl/
* Audio:(file)
* Rhymes: -ɔwl
* Syllabification: soul

### Noun

soul m inan
* soul music

#### Derived terms

* soulowy

### Further reading

* soul in Wielki słownik języka polskiego, Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN
* soul in Polish dictionaries at PWN

## Portuguese
### Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from English soul.

### Pronunciation

* (Brazil) IPA: /sow/
** Homophone: sou (when pronounced with the /w/)

### Noun

soul m (uncountable)
* (music) soul music (a music genre combining gospel music, rhythm and blues and often jazz)

## Romanian
### Etymology

Borrowed from English soul.

### Adjective

soul m or f or n (indeclinable)
* soul (music)

#### Declension
## Spanish
### Etymology

Borrowed from English soul.

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /ˈsoul/ [ˈsou̯l]
* Rhymes: -oul
* Syllabification: soul

### Noun

soul m (uncountable)
* soul, soul music

### Further reading

* “soul”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 2024 December 10