φύσις + ἔχω2
Word
Validation
Yes
Word-form
ψυχήν
Word-lemma
Transliteration (Word)
psukhē
English translation (word)
soul
Transliteration (Etymon)
physics + ekhō2
English translation (etymon)
nature + to carry
Century
4 BC
Source
Idem
Ref.
Cratylus 400b
Ed.
J. Burnet, Platonis opera, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1900 (repr. 1967)
Quotation
Translation (En)
Parallels
Lexicon, De atticis nominibus 42 (ψυχή. παρὰ τὸ ψύχω· ἡ τὸ σῶμα ἀναψύχουσα. ἢ παρὰ τὸ τὴν φύσιν ὀχεῖν, φυσέχη); Joannes Mauropus, Etymologica hominum 139-140 (Διπλοῦς δ’ ἕκαστος, σῶμα καὶ ψυχὴν ἔχων | σῴαν ἔχουσαν καὶ κρατοῦσαν τὴν φύσιν)
Modern etymology
Ψυχή is derived from ψύχω, both belonging to a root meaning "to blow". The meaning "cold" of ψυχρός is secondary in Greek (Beekes, EDG)
Persistence in Modern Greek
Ψυχή is still used today with a wide range of meanings: 1. soul, 2. spirit, 3. set of human emotions, 4. courage, 5. the part of human existence that remains immortal etc. (Triandafyllidis, DMG)
Entry By
Arnaud Zucker
Comment
Etymology provided as an alternative to the older etymology by ψύχω mentioned earlier (see ψυχή / ψύχω). The word is parsed as a compound, the soul being that which "carries nature", that is, allows it to move. This is clearly a joke: Plato puts in the mouth of Hermogenes (the advocate of conventionalism) the opinion that this etymology is τεχνικώτερος than the former one, only to have Socrates reply that it would be γελοῖον "ridiculous" to think that the name giver may have reached so precisely the right etymology. This etymology is never repeated in Antiquity except once in a 14th c. anonymous lexicon (see Parallels)