h₂enh₁-eyo-
“to keep breathing, animating”animate, inanimate, magnanimous
Iterative of *h₂enh₁- giving Latin animāre, English animate, inanimate, magnanimous, equanimity.
Discussion
The PIE iterative form *h₂enh₁-eyo- (to keep breathing, to animate) derives from the root *h₂enh₁- (to breathe), with the *-eyo- suffix expressing sustained action. The meaning is "to be in the continuous state of breathing" — life itself conceived as an ongoing act of respiration. From this single concept of breathing, the IE languages built their vocabularies for soul, spirit, wind, and living creatures.
Latin anima (breath, soul, life-force) and the related animus (spirit, mind, courage) continue the root and generated one of the most philosophically productive word families in English: animal (a breathing creature — an animal is defined by its animation, its possession of breath/soul), animate (to give breath/life to), inanimate (without breath), animosity (originally strong spirit/courage, later hostility — courage intensified into aggression), equanimity (aequus + animus, "even-spirited" — emotional balance), magnanimous (magnus + animus, "great-spirited" — generous), pusillanimous (pusillus + animus, "tiny-spirited" — cowardly), and unanimous (ūnus + animus, "of one spirit" — in complete agreement).
Greek ánemos (ἄνεμος, "wind") preserves the root in its meteorological extension: the wind as the world's breath. The derivative anemone ("wind-flower" — the flower that opens when the wind blows) preserves the connection between breathing and botanical life.
Sanskrit ātmán- (self, soul, breath — the essential inner being) continues the root in one of its most philosophically elevated forms. The Vedantic concept of ātman — the true self, identical with Brahman (the universal principle) — is etymologically "the breathing one," the self defined by the act of respiration. The Upanishadic declaration tat tvam asi ("you are that") refers to the identity of ātman and Brahman — the individual breath and the cosmic breath are one.
Old Irish anál (breath) and Old Norse ǫnd (breath, spirit, soul) confirm the Celtic and Germanic reflexes. The Old Norse word appears in the creation myth: Odin breathed ǫnd (spirit/breath) into the first humans, an act of divine animation paralleling the Latin concept of anima as the divine spark.
The root's conceptual legacy is profound: the equation of breathing with being alive — of animation with the possession of anima — structures Western philosophy from Aristotle's De Anima to modern cognitive science. When we call something "animated" or describe a person as having "spirit," we invoke a PIE metaphor: to live is to breathe, and the soul IS the breath.