Dictionary.com

Word of the Day Archive
Friday October 13, 2000

animus \AN-uh-muhs\, noun:
1. Basic attitude or animating spirit; disposition; intention.
2. A feeling of ill will; animosity.
3. In Jungian psychology, the inner masculine part of the female personality [cf. anima].

The seemingly anti-intellectual animus of the syllabus [the Syllabus of Errors, issued by Pope Pius IX in 1864] also disillusioned some converts, among them Thomas Arnold, who reverted to Anglicanism when he learned of it.
-- Patrick Allitt, Catholic Converts

It is important to note also that part of Kipling's animus against the Christian missionaries in India arose from his indignation at their destructive puritanism.
-- Christopher Hitchens, "A Man of Permanent Contradictions", The Atlantic, June 2002

To teach the poor chump a lesson, the media mogul steals the burglar's lucky ring, an act of scornful hauteur that brings out the animus in Dortmunder.
-- Marilyn Stasio, review of M Is for Malice, by Sue Grafton, New York Times, November 10, 1996

Animus is from Latin animus, "soul, character, disposition."

Dictionary.com Entry and Pronunciation for animus

 

Share This:  Share This: del.icio.usShare This: digg.comShare This: FacebookShare This: furl.netShare This: www.netscape.comShare This: myweb2.search.yahoo.comShare This: www.stumbleupon.comShare This: www.google.comShare This: www.technorati.comShare This: blinklist.comShare This: newsvine.comShare This: ma.gnolia.comShare This: reddit.comShare This: favorites.live.com