Link Centre Dictionary

animism

ani·mism

UK/ˈænɪmɪzəm/ US/ˈænʌˌmɪzʌm/ uncommon dated

noun

1.

the doctrine that all natural objects and the universe itself have souls

  • “animism is common among primitive peoples”

Origin

From anima + -ism, from Latin anima (“life", "breath", "soul”). Dated sense from German Animismus, coined c. 1720 by physicist/chemist Georg Ernst Stahl (1660-1734) See anima mundi.

Related words

Broader terms

WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.