pneuma

Japanese: pneuma

…The Greek word psyche (soul, spirit) originally meant breath. And pneuma also originally meant breath, wind, or air, but later came to be considered the principle of existence. In ancient India, prāṇa meant breath, breath, or exhalation, but it also meant wind (atmosphere), one of the components of human existence, and eventually came to be considered the basis of the individual self. …

From [Breathing]

…
[History of respiratory research]
As can be seen from words such as "ikimono" (living things) and the English word "animal" (derived from the Latin anima, meaning breath or life), breathing and life have been closely linked since ancient times. The idea that pneuma (spirit) from the air is taken into the body and energizes the living body was widely held in Greece, and Aristotle distinguished between three types of spirit. Galen of Rome in the 2nd century believed that natural spirits were responsible for so-called vegetable functions such as digestion, nutrition, and excretion.

From [Spirit]

…This point is also clear from the process of the formation of the meaning of the word. In both the East and the West, the mind is formed in relation to the movement of the heart, and is therefore a concept that has its seat inside the body. On the other hand, the spirit has an omnipresent extension that penetrates and transcends the individual's body, as the corresponding English words spirit, French esprit, and German Geist all derive from the Latin spiritus, meaning wind, air, or breath, and the Greek pneuma. Because of this characteristic, the spirit, on the one hand, takes on the image of a spirit that controls the human mind and body, and on the other hand, it is linked to the idea of God or the transcendent, strengthening its ethical and metaphysical character. …

*Some of the terminology that mentions "pneuma" is listed below.

Source | Heibonsha World Encyclopedia 2nd Edition | Information

Japanese:

…ギリシア語のプシュケー(魂，霊魂)はもと気息を意味した。またプネウマpneumaももと気息，風，空気を意味したが，のちには存在の原理とされるにいたった。古代インドでは，プラーナprāṇaが息，気息または呼気を意味したが，それは同時に人間存在の構成要素の一つである風(大気)をも意味し，やがて個人我の根拠とされた。…

【呼吸】より

…
【呼吸研究の歴史】
　いき(息)もの，英語のアニマル(ラテン語のanima＝息，生命に由来)などの語からもわかるとおり，呼吸と生命は古来密接に結びつけられてきた。空気中のプネウマpneuma(精気)が体内に取り込まれて生体を活気づけるという考えはギリシアにひろく見られ，アリストテレスは3種の精気を区別した。2世紀のローマのガレノスは自然精気が消化，栄養，排出などのいわゆる植物性機能をになうと考えた。…

【精神】より

…この点は語義の成立の過程からも明らかで，洋の東西を問わず心は心臓の動きと関連してできあがり，それゆえ身体内部に座をもつ概念である。一方精神は，それにあたる英語のスピリットspirit，フランス語のエスプリesprit，ドイツ語のガイストGeistが〈風〉〈空気〉〈息〉などを意味するラテン語のスピリトゥスspiritus，ギリシア語のプネウマpneumaに由来するように，個人の身体をつらぬき個人の身体を超えて遍在する広がりをもつ。こうした性格から精神は，一方で，人間の心や身体を支配する〈霊〉のイメージを帯び，他方では神や超越者の観念と結びついて倫理的･形而上学的な性格をつよめる。…

※「pneuma」について言及している用語解説の一部を掲載しています。

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