Seele

• Seel, Seel' (poetic)

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”).

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

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -eːlə

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]‎; 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

• Geist

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

• IPA^(key): /ˈseːlə/

Seele f

1. plural of Seel

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

Seele f

1. soul