Seele

German

Alternative forms

• Seel, Seel' (poetic)

Etymology

From Middle High German sēle, from Old High German sēula, sēla, from Proto-West Germanic *saiwalu, from Proto-Germanic *saiwalō. Cognate with Low German Seel, Dutch ziel, English soul, Danish sjæl.

The type of bread is probably related to Allerseelen (“All Souls' Day”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈzeːlə/ (prescriptive standard)
• IPA^(key): /ˈseːlɛ/ (Austria)

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -eːlə

Noun

Seele f (genitive Seele, plural Seelen, diminutive Seelchen n)

1. soul
   • 1808, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, “Vor dem Thor”, in Faust: Der Tragödie erster Teil [Faust, Part One]‎^[1]; republished as Bayard Taylor, transl., 1870:

     Zwey Seelen wohnen, ach! in meiner Brust, / Die eine will sich von der andern trennen;

     Two souls, alas! reside within my breast, / And each withdraws from, and repels, its brother.

   • 1974, “Du hast den Farbfilm vergessen”, Kurt Demmler (lyrics), Michael Heubach (music), performed by Nina Hagen:

     Du hast den Farbfilm vergessen, bei meiner Seel'

     You forgot the colour film, by my soul

   • 1997, “Sie wollen uns erzählen”, in Es ist egal, aber, performed by Tocotronic:

     Sie wollen uns erzählen / Sie hätten eine Seele

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

2. mind, spirit
3. (by extension) human being, soul
4. (firearms) bore (of a gun)
5. (anatomy) swim bladder
6. (electrical engineering) core (of an electric cable)
7. (dated or colloquial) inhabitant (of a municipality)

   das 500-Seelen-Dorf ― the 500-person village; the town of 500 souls

8. (lutherie) sound post

   Synonym: Stimmstock

9. (baking, Southern Germany) a type of narrow bread from Swabia

Declension

Declension of Seele [feminine]

	singular			plural
	indef.	def.	noun	def.	noun
nominative	eine	die	Seele	die	Seelen
genitive	einer	der	Seele	der	Seelen
dative	einer	der	Seele	den	Seelen
accusative	eine	die	Seele	die	Seelen

Derived terms

• beseelen
• entseelen
• Leib und Seele
• seelisch

 

Related terms

• Seelenfrieden
• Seelengröße
• Seelenklempner
• seelenruhig
• Seelentröster
• Seelenverkäufer
• Seelenverwandter
• seelenvoll
• Seelenwanderung

 

See also

• Geist

Further reading

• “Seele” in Digitales Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache
• “Seele” in Uni Leipzig: Wortschatz-Lexikon
• “Seele” in Duden online
• Seele on the German Wikipedia.Wikipedia ^de

Hunsrik

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈseːlə/

Noun

Seele f

1. plural of Seel

Saterland Frisian

Etymology

From Old Frisian sēla, from Proto-West Germanic *saiwalu, from Proto-Germanic *saiwalō. More at soul.

Noun

Seele f

1. soul