LEXIS

Ancient Greek · noun · Migration

ψυχή

psyche

/psy.kʰɛ̌ː/; English /ˈsaɪki/

The life that leaves the body. Only later, the seat of mind.

The noun moves. In Homer, ψυχή is a departing life, the shade. The seat of mind is a later station. Kinship with ψύχω, ‘to blow, to cool’, is an etymology of the verb. It is not what the Homeric noun is doing.

Morphology Noun ψυχή, genitive ψυχῆς. Often set beside the verb ψύχω, ‘blow, make cool’. The noun’s Homeric work is not that verb’s gloss.

  1. Homer

    Life, and the departed shade. It leaves the limbs for Hades. It is not the mind of the living person.1,2

    Established

  2. Pindar, then Plato

    An immaterial soul, set against the body, and later the seat of mind.1

    Established

  3. English, 1640s

    Animating spirit, taken from Latin psyche, from Greek ψυχή. Personified as the beloved of Eros.3

    Established

Semantic change

  • departing life

    after Homer, through classical philosophy

    seat of mind

    LSJ keeps the Homeric life and the later soul as different senses. The change is real. The date of the turn is not one year. Established1

  • kinship with ψύχω

    a story dictionaries still love

    the noun means breath

    Harper says the noun is probably akin to the verb ‘to blow, breathe’. That kinship does not make the Iliad line a lesson in respiration. The breath-soul story is marked folk when it is offered as what Homer meant. Folk etymology3,2

Read the text

  • His soul fleeting from his limbs was gone to Hades, bewailing her fate, leaving manliness and youth.2

    Murray’s English for the line in which ψυχή leaves the limbs. Soul here translates the departing life, not a breath drawn in the chest.

    Primary source

Two shores

Constellation

Elon Musk

No primary-source occurrence in the built lexicon yet.

Soul. Story. World.

Psyche · · Primary source5

Public home of the Psyche world. Myth, asteroid 16, and the question of soul. A thin door, not this etymology.

InterpretationThe world may hold the goddess and the asteroid. LEXIS holds the word.

Follow the number

Numerical analysis comes after language. Historical systems and modern English mappings are labeled. Misses are kept. Further calculation lives at CIPHER.

76 · miss

  • 76

    Modern mapping · miss

    English ordinal

    P16+S19+Y25+C3+H8+E5. Method named: English ordinal. A=1 through Z=26.

    76. A miss for 42. The sum is of the English spelling. It does not inhabit the Homeric etymology.

  • 31

    Modern mapping · miss

    Full reduction

    P7+S1+Y7+C3+H8+E5. Method named: full reduction. A=1 through I=9, then the cycle repeats.

    31. A miss. Pythagorean letter-reduction, not a digital root of 76, and not a Greek value.

  • 1708

    Historical system · mathematically intrinsic

    Greek isopsephy

    Ψ=700, Υ=400, Χ=600, Η=8. Method named: Greek isopsephy. Milesian letter-values.

    ΨΥΧΗ = 1708. A historical letter-sum. Separate from the modern English ciphers. Not proof of ancient intent, and not a tenant of the Homeric etymology.

Ask the next question

Ask the next question

  • When did ψυχή stop being the departing free-soul and become the seat of mind?
  • If Homeric ψυχή is not breath, what does the irresistible breath-soul story still teach about how we want the word to behave?
  • Why does a metal asteroid carry a soul’s name?

Neighbors

  • Psyche: The world of the figure: myth, asteroid 16, the question of soul. Not the lexicon.
  • CIPHER: Owns calculation. LEXIS only shows the labeled sums, including the misses.

Notes

Notes
  1. Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, and Henry Stuart Jones, A Greek-English Lexicon, s.v. “ψυχή.” Homeric life and departed spirit are kept apart from the later soul.
  2. Homer, Iliad 16.856, translated by A. T. Murray. The soul leaves the limbs for Hades. Perseus text, inspected 23 September 2026.
  3. Douglas Harper, “psyche,” Online Etymology Dictionary. English from the 1640s; Greek ψυχή; probably akin to ψύχω, “to blow, breathe,” also “to cool.” A PIE root *bhes- is only sometimes traced.
  4. NASA, “Psyche.” A mission to a metal-rich asteroid of the same name, in the main belt. The name is not a measurement of soul.
  5. Psyche, public home, inspected 23 September 2026. Hero: “Soul. Story. World.”

Last verified 2026-09-23