animus (2009-04-07)

Part of Speech: noun

Pronunciation: ['æn-i-mês]

Definition: (1) A disposition or attitude that motivates someone's behavior; (2) a concealed hostility or rancor toward someone or something; (3) in Jungian psychology, the masculine side of a woman (the "anima" is the feminine side of men).

Usage: An animus still may be a spiritedness that motivates someone to action: “Marshall isn't shy; he simply lacks the animus to ask Crystal for a raise." You must be careful, however, to avoid the default assumption that the motivation is secret and rancorous, "Larchmont has sensed an animus in Griselda toward him ever since he received the promotion she wanted."

Suggested Usage: This is a good substitute for "hatred" when your disposition is less intense than hatred. Animus is a very personal, focused dislike of something while animosity usually is slightly more diffuse. We feel an animosity toward everything that contaminates the biosphere but an animus toward the local grocer who overcharges.

Etymology: Today's word is the Latin word animus "soul, spirit, intellect" lifted whole from the language. "Animal" originally referred to all beings considered to have a soul, thus living beings. The root comes, interestingly enough, from a Proto-Indo-European root (*anê-) meaning "to breathe." Our ancestors thought that our breath was our soul, the spirit of life itself. In ancient Avestan, a Western Indic language, antya meant "breath in." Sanskrit atman "soul" and German atmen "breath" are also probably related, though the loss of nasalization that converted the [n] to [t] is not a common change. Two other cousins are Greek anemos "wind" and Russian von' "stink," which goes back to Old Slavic "vonya" from earlier *anya."