Discussion Groups / English Usage / July 2009

Which of the two definitions is at point here? I've heard phrases
like "He's a good old soul" all my life, which greatly antedates
"New Age"

Taking it figuratively, to mean merely "wise beyond one's years", one
needn't assume the Hindu/Buddhist/Theosophical premise. That said, I've
often heard the expression accompanied by New-Agey psychobabble, so --
as usual -- context can't be neglected.

I don't think I've encountered that one in the wild.

BTW I notice that the first definition manages to misuse "whom" in each
of the first three sentences. Oy, oy, oy! Hypercorrection run amuck?

Yes. In BrE "soul" is sometimes used to mean "person".
Such uses that I've been familiar with for all my life seem to fit the
"endearment" part of the OED sense:

   7. fig. Applied to persons:
      a. As a term of endearment or adoration.

For example, "She is a gentle soul".

There was a bit of bother following a soccer match:
http://tinyurl.com/l8jr8u

   What made a gentle soul like Lauren resemble a demon?

Cute puppy alert!
It is also used of pets:
http://orlando.kijiji.com/c-Pets-Dogs-puppies-sophia-Is-A-Gentle-Soul-W0QQAdIdZ1
38780787

   Is A Gentle Soul With Soft Sweet Little Kisses And A Very Attentive
   Personality. He Loves To Be Cuddle And Carried.

Name change?

Anyway, just to add a bit:

  -------------------------
Old King Cole was a merry old soul,
And a merry old soul was he;
He called for his pipe, and he called for his bowl,
And he called for his fiddlers three.

Every fiddler, he had a fiddle,
And a very fine fiddle had he;
Twee tweedle dee, tweedle dee,
went the fiddlers.

Oh,there's none so rare
As can compare
With King Cole and his fiddlers three.
  -------------------------

Btw, I think of "old soul" as a good term (unless someone says "evil" or
"bad" or something like that before "old").

They are absolutely *improbable* sources!

Oh, Christ almighty!  As if the suggested New-Age source of "soul"
weren't stupid enough, now comes one even *more* stupid:  Negroes!

Doesn't *anyone* know that _soul_ is just an ancient synonym of
"person," "human being," or "inhabitant"?  Anyone ever hear the common
expression "not a SOUL in sight" (= not a PERSON / HUMAN BEING in sight)?

In addition, the equivalents of _soul_ are also used in other languages
to mean "person," "human being," or "inhabitant"; e.g., German _Seele_,
French _âme_, and Spanish _alma_.

The original post above strongly suggests subject contexts in which such
marginalia as lines from Old King Cole are irrelevant.  Rather, reference
seems to be to a sort of muddled, popularized misunderstanding of the
Hindu doctrine of reincarnation, with the idea being that an "old soul"
is a person who represents the product to date of a very long series of
incarnations, the implication being that each incarnation somehow further
polishes or augments some estimable quality or qualities, "purity" or
"wisdom" or who knows what, so that a person so described is held to be
correspondingly estimable.

According to the Urban Dictionary, there is also a sense derivative of
the one above, in which intercourse with an underage female is justified
by the statement that either--it is not clear from the entry--she is such
an "old soul", or she is simply mature beyond her years; neither sense is
likely to much sway the judge in a trial for statutory rape.