h₂enh₁m-
“to breathe, soul-breath”soul/breath
PIE root meaning to breathe or soul-breath. Source of Latin anima, Greek ánemos (wind), and words for breath and spirit.
Discussion
The root *h₂enh₁m- ("to breathe, soul-breath") is related to the broader PIE root *h₂enh₁- ("to breathe"), treated in LIV² and Pokorny (IEW 38–39). The concept of breath as the animating principle of life is deeply embedded in PIE thought, and this root family is its primary lexical expression.
Latin anima ("breath, soul, life-force") and animus ("mind, spirit, courage") are the central reflexes, yielding an enormous English vocabulary: animal, animate, inanimate, animosity, equanimity, magnanimous, pusillanimous, and unanimous. The distinction between anima (vital breath) and animus (conscious mind) preserves what may be an ancient PIE distinction between life-force and mental activity.
Greek ánemos (ἄνεμος, "wind") reflects the same root with the semantic shift from breath to wind—the wind as the earth's breathing. English anemone (the "wind-flower") is a derivative.
Sanskrit ániti ("breathes") and ātmán- ("breath, self, soul") are the Indo-Iranian reflexes. The ātmán- form, central to Indian philosophy, shows the metaphysical extension: the breath-soul as the essential self. This development parallels the Latin anima/animus distinction independently.
In Celtic, Old Irish anál ("breath") and Welsh anadl continue the root. Gothic uzanan ("to breathe out, to expire") preserves the Germanic reflex.
The laryngeal *h₂ is confirmed by the a-vocalism across branches, and *h₁ by the lengthened vowel in certain derivatives. The cultural significance is profound: the equation of breath with life, soul, and consciousness is not merely metaphorical but reflects a core PIE cosmological concept in which the cessation of breath was the defining marker of death.
Notes
Source of Latin "anima" (soul/breath), "animus". Soul as breath concept.