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Spiritus

Latin Phrases
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

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The pronunciation guide uses the ARPABET phonetic system—the same system used in speech recognition and text-to-speech applications.

Vowel Examples:
AE1 = cat, bat
EH1 = bed, head
IY1 = see, me
OW1 = go, boat
UW1 = boot, do
Stress Numbers:
0 = no stress (unstressed)
1 = primary stress (loud)
2 = secondary stress (medium)
Example:
AH0 TH IY1 N AH0
= a-THEE-na (Athena)

The stressed syllable (marked with 1) is pronounced louder and clearer than others.

Quick Definition

Latin for "spirit" or "breath." In this poem it appears as part of a learned phrase naming a world-spirit.

Detailed Definition
Spiritus is a Latin word meaning spirit, breath, or life force. Yeats borrows it in the phrase Spiritus Mundi to give his vision an occult, universal quality, as if the image comes from a shared world-soul.
Example
Example in poetry:
“A vast image out of Spiritus Mundi” — W. B. Yeats, “The Second Coming”; Latin Spiritus Mundi means “spirit of the world” or world-spirit; Yeats uses it for a shared storehouse of archetypal images and visions; the Latin phrase gives the prophecy an occult, philosophical authority; its appearance before the “rough beast” suggests that the vision rises from collective imagination rather than private dream
Additional Notes
"Spiritus" is a Latin word embedded in the poem, and the quoted phrase may puzzle readers who do not know Latin.; Found in the poem, The Second Coming by William Butler Yeats
Also Known As
spirit essence breath
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