An archaic term meaning to deprive of soul or spiritual essence; to demoralize or corrupt.
From Middle English dis- (reversal prefix) + soul. This word combines the Germanic root 'soul' with the Latin prefix 'dis-' to create a term for spiritual degradation common in medieval religious writing.
Medieval writers believed souls could literally be destroyed or lost through sin, so 'dissoul' was genuinely frightening language that appears in church documents—the word vanished as beliefs about souls changed.
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