# animus

Pronunciation: say "AN-i-mus" /ˈæ.nɪ.məs/

## Noun

1. A feeling of hostility, enmity or ill will toward a person, group or thing.
   - Simple: A feeling of strong dislike toward someone, often wanting things to go badly for them.
   - _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._
2. In law, the intention or motive behind the actions of a legal person, such as an individual or a company.
   - Simple: In law, the intention or reason behind what a person or company does.
   - _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._
3. In Jungian psychology, the masculine aspect of a woman's psyche or personality.
   - Simple: In Jung's ideas about the mind, the male side of a woman's mind and 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._
4. The fundamental impulses and instincts that govern a person's actions.
   - Simple: The basic drives and instincts that guide what a person does.
   - _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._

## 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.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/animus (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).