Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun The soul or vital spirit.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun Breath; spirit; soul.
  • noun A breathing,
  • noun In theology, the spirit; the highest in man and the seat of the divine indwelling, as distinguished from the soul, the seat of the natural human life.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun music a neume
  • noun the spirit or soul
  • noun Gnosticism one of three levels of a human being, the spirit, along with the body and soul

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Greek; see pneu- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Ancient Greek πνεῦμα (pneuma, "wind, breath, spirit"), from πνέω (pneō, "I blow, breathe")

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word pneuma.

Examples

  • When we apply ourselves to seeking something with memory, this pineal gland is opened to provide access to the animate spirit psychical pneuma from the anterior to the posterior ventricle.

    Architecture and Memory: The Renaissance Studioli of Federico da Montefeltro 2008

  • For only when the psychical pneuma is serene, lucid, and clear does it cross over to the posterior ventricle (Publicius, Art of Memory, 28).

    Architecture and Memory: The Renaissance Studioli of Federico da Montefeltro 2008

  • Further, as Barfield rightly noted, the literal/figurative distinction is actually a breaking apart of what at least sometimes is an earlier holophrastic meaning -- that is, we have no reason to think that people took pneuma (=wind) as the anchor meaning and then extended the use to pneuma (=spirit); rather, they just used the word pneuma in both ways without bothering about literal and figurative senses.

    On Some Misconceptions About Figurative Language 2005

  • Further, as Barfield rightly noted, the literal/figurative distinction is actually a breaking apart of what at least sometimes is an earlier holophrastic meaning -- that is, we have no reason to think that people took pneuma (=wind) as the anchor meaning and then extended the use to pneuma (=spirit); rather, they just used the word pneuma in both ways without bothering about literal and figurative senses.

    Archive 2005-05-01 2005

  • And because, as we observed before, the word pneuma is variously used, Didymus, de Spiritu Sancto, lib. iii., supposeth that the prefixing of the article to doth distinguish the signification, and confine it to the Holy Ghost in the New Testament.

    Pneumatologia 1616-1683 1967

  • Because the word pneuma, without as well as with the article so generally refers to the Spirit in the New Testament.

    A Commentary on the Epistle to the Ephesians 1797-1878 1860

  • The cosmos is pervaded by a continuous invisible substance which they called pneuma (Greek:

    Continuity and Infinitesimals Bell, John L. 2009

  • 59 If the psychical pneuma is too cold, Publicius adds, it cannot cross over to the posterior ventricle, thus rendering the memory "dull and languid."

    Architecture and Memory: The Renaissance Studioli of Federico da Montefeltro 2008

  • Mk. 7: 25 hes eiche to thugatrion autes pneuma akatharton.

    A Grammar of Septuagint Greek 1856-1924 1905

  • The Greek πνευμα ακαθαρτης or pneuma akathartis means literally "unclean spirit."

    Conservapedia - Recent changes [en] 2010

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.

  • (n) spirit or soul

    January 12, 2009