24 Empedokles, _Carmina_, v. 411 (_Fragm. Philos. Græc._ vol. i. p.
12):—ὦ φίλοι, οἶδα μὲν οὖν ὅτ᾽ ἀληθείη παρὰ μύθοις οὓς ἐγὼ ἐξερέω;
μάλα δ᾽ ἀργαλέη γὲ τέτυκται ἀνδράσι καὶ δύσζηλος ἐπὶ φρένα πίστιος
ὁρμή.
_ 25 Daily Life and Origin of the Tasmanians_, by J. Bonwick, 1870, p.
143.
26 The word ψυχή is clearly connected in Greek with ψύχω, which meant
originally blowing, and was used either in the sense of cooling by
blowing, or breathing by blowing. In the former acceptation it
produced ψύχος, coldness; ψυχρός, cold; ψυχάω, I cool; in the latter
ψυχή, breath, then life, then soul. So far the purely Greek growth
of words derived from ψύχω is clear. But ψύχω itself is difficult.
It seems to point to a root _spu_, meaning to blow out, to spit;
Lat. _spuo_, and _spuma_, foam; Goth, _speivan_; Gr. πτύω, supposed
to stand for σπιύω. Hesychius mentions ψύττει = πτύει, ψυττόν =
πτύελον. (Pott, _Etym. Forsch._ No. 355.) Curtius connects this root
with Gr. φυ, in φῦσα, blowing, bellows, φυσάω, to blow, φυσιάω, to
snort, ποι-φύσσω, to blow, and with Lat. _spirare_ (_i.e._
spoisare). See E. B. Tylor, “The Religion of Savages,” _Fortnightly
Review_, 1866, p. 73.
Stahl, who rejected the division of life and mind adopted by Bacon,
and returned to the Aristotelian doctrine, falls back on Plato’s
etymology of ψυχή as φυσέχη, from φύσιν ἔχειν or ὀχεῖν, Crat. 400 B.
In a passage of his _Theoria Medica Vera_ (Halæ, 1708), pointed out
to me by Dr. Rolleston, Stahl says: “Invenio in lexico græco
antiquiore post alios, et Budæum imprimis, iterum iterumque reviso,
nomenclaturam nimis quam fugitive allegatam; φυσέχη, poetice, pro
ψυχή. Incidit animo suspicari, an non verum primum nomen animæ
antiquissimis Græcis fuerit hoc φυσέχη, quasi ἔχων τὸ φύειν, e cuius
vocis pronunciatione deflectente, uti vere familiariter solet
vocalium, inprimis sub accentibus, fugitiva enunciatione, sensim
natum sit φυσ-χή φσυχή, denique ad faciliorem pronunciationem in
locum φσυχή, ψυχή. Quam suspicionem fovere mihi videtur illud, quod
vocabuli ψυχῆς, pro anima, nulla idonea analogia in lingua græca
occurrat; nam quæ a ψύχω ducitur, cum verus huius et directus
significatus notorie sit refrigero, indirectus autem magis, spiro,
nihil certe hæc ad animam puto.” (P. 44.)
27 ἀνδροσδὲ ψυχὴ πάλιν ἐλθεῖν οὔτεν λειστὴ,
οὔθ᾽ ἐλετὴ, ἐπεὶ ἄρ κεν ἀμείψεται ἔρκος ὀδόντων.
_Il._ ix. 408.
28 διὰ δ᾽ ἔντερα χαλκὸς ἄφυσσεν δῃώσας;
ψυχὴ δὲ κατ᾽ οὐταμένην ὠτειλὴν ἔσσυτ᾽ ἐπειγομέυη.
_Il._ xiv. 517.
29 “Ter frustra compressa manu effugit imago,
Par levibus ventis volucrique simillima somno.”
Virg. _Æn._ ii. 792.