animus
- 1A feeling of hostility, enmity or ill will toward a person, group or thing.
Years of personal animus between the two senators made any compromise impossible.
The lawsuit claims the new policy was driven by animus toward immigrants rather than by any budget concern.
UsageMost often animus against or toward someone, as in personal animus toward a rival; everyday speech often says bad blood.
Similarhostility, animosity, enmity, antipathy, rancor
Oppositegoodwill
- 2In law, the intention or motive behind the actions of a legal person, such as an individual or a company.
To establish domicile, the plaintiff had to show an animus to remain in the state indefinitely.
The court examined the company's animus in transferring its assets just before it filed for bankruptcy.
Similarintention, intent, motive
Note
Legal Latin builds whole phrases on it, each naming one intent: animus testandi, the intention to make a will; animus manendi, the intention to remain, which helps fix domicile; animus furandi, the intention to steal. Here the word is neutral: a company's animus in moving its assets is its purpose, not its spite. Out of context it can be mistaken for the "ill will" meaning, so the surrounding words decide.
Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 6 facts
- Legal Latin forms phrases with animus that specify particular intentions. our-languages.canada.ca
- Animus testandi means the intention to make a will. en.wikipedia.org
- Animus manendi means the intention to remain. en.wikipedia.org
- Animus manendi helps establish domicile. elibrary.judiciary.gov.ph
- Animus furandi means the intention to steal. en.wiktionary.org
- In this legal sense, animus denotes intention or purpose without necessarily implying hostility. en.wiktionary.org
- 3In Jungian psychology, the masculine aspect of a woman's psyche or personality.
In her dreams the animus often took the form of a stern older man issuing orders.
Jungian analysts encourage clients to recognize the animus instead of projecting it onto their partners.
UsageMost often with the or a possessive: the animus, her animus.
Note
Its partner is the anima, the feminine figure Jungian psychology places in a man, and the two are almost always explained together. Both belong to the unconscious, surfacing in dreams, fantasies and projections onto real people, so a woman's animus is something she discovers rather than chooses.
Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 3 facts
- In Jungian psychology, the anima is the feminine counterpart in a man, and both anima and animus are unconscious. en.wikipedia.org
- Anima and animus appear in dreams and fantasies and can become consciously recognized through those appearances. jungpage.org
- Anima and animus are encountered through projections onto other people. thesap.org.uk
- 4The fundamental impulses and instincts that govern a person's actions.
Her novels strip away polite motives to expose the animus underneath: fear, appetite, and a hunger for approval.
Historians argue that self-preservation, not ideology, was the true animus of the regime's leaders in its final years.
Similarmotivation, drive, impulse, motive
Note
Latin animus meant the mind in almost every guise: intellect, will, intention, courage, passion, pride, wrath, even breath and life. English keeps the inner, driving part, what lies behind a choice rather than the choice itself, and it often follows behind or of: the animus behind a risk, the animus of a regime. That same Latin range, which took in passion and wrath, lets one word also name the "ill will" meaning.
Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 2 facts
- Latin animus had the listed meanings, including intellectual and emotional faculties, breath and life. en.wiktionary.org
- The Latin semantic range included passion and wrath, consistent with the English ill-will meaning. en.wiktionary.org
Practice
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Origin
A learned borrowing from Latin animus, "the mind, soul, will, courage, spirit, passion, wrath, or breath of life", from Proto-Italic *anamos and ultimately Proto-Indo-European *h₂enh₁mos, from *h₂enh₁- "to breathe". It is closely related to Latin anima, a feminine form of the same word.
Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 5 facts
- English animus is a learned borrowing from Latin animus. en.wiktionary.org
- Latin animus has the listed meanings, including mind, soul, will, courage, spirit, passion, wrath and life-giving breath. en.wiktionary.org
- Latin animus descends from reconstructed Proto-Italic *anamos. en.wiktionary.org
- Proto-Italic *anamos derives from Proto-Indo-European *h₂enh₁mos, itself from *h₂enh₁-, meaning 'to breathe'. en.wiktionary.org
- Latin anima is closely related to animus and is its feminine form. en.wiktionary.org