Soul Quiz
The current English word "soul" may have originated from the Old English sawol, documented in 970 AD[citation needed]. "Sawol" has possible etymological links with a Germanic root from which we also get the word "sea". The old German word is called 'se(u)la', which means: belonging to the sea (ancient Germanic conceptions involved the souls of the unborn and of the dead "living" being part of a medium, similar to water), or perhaps, "living water" [citation needed].
The word "soul" did not exist in the times of Jesus, Socrates or Aristotle, and so the quotations, interpretations and translations into the word "soul" from these sources, means that the word should be handled very carefully. One might go as far as saying that since the word "soul", in the sense we use it today, did not exist in Hebrew or Aramaic, and only partly in Greek [citation needed]. Ancient Greeks sometimes referred to the soul as psyche (as in modern English psychology). Aristotle's works in Latin translation, used the word anima (as in animated), which also means "breath". In the New Testament, the original word may sometimes better translate as "life", as in :
"For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?" (
Matthew 16:26) If you exchange the word "soul" for "life" in the sentence above, the statement may seem less profound.
The Latin root of the related word spirit, like anima, also expresses the idea of "breath". Likewise, the Biblical Hebrew word for 'soul' is nefesh, meaning life, or vital breath.
The various origins and usages demonstrate not only that what people call "soul" today has varied in meaning during history, but that the word and concept themselves have changed in their implications.