Talk:aura

Non-English text removed from Finnish section

Usage notes

• Isäntä kynti peltoa uudella viisisiipisellä auralla.

--Connel MacKenzie 07:47, 25 November 2006 (UTC)

Request for verification

The following information has failed Wiktionary's verification process.

Failure to be verified means that insufficient eligible citations of this usage have been found, and the entry therefore does not meet Wiktionary inclusion criteria at the present time. We have archived here the disputed information, the verification discussion, and any documentation gathered so far, pending further evidence.
Do not re-add this information to the article without also submitting proof that it meets Wiktionary's criteria for inclusion.

---

"An inner or special power/energy mentioned of in graphic novels (manga) Ex: In the Manga/Anime series Yu Yu Hakusho, the amount of power someone has is measured by their Aura." Equinox ◑ 16:33, 3 May 2009 (UTC)

Hmm, I can't really pass judgement on the meaning but I think that maybe it should stay (perhaps with a less specialised tag); I would not say that it is uncommon, e.g. the Pokemon Riolu and Lucario have "aura" based powers. 50 Xylophone Players talk 10:08, 4 May 2009 (UTC)

Do you reckon you can cite it from our usual suspects? Nobody else is going to bother looking up anime stuff. Equinox ◑ 22:26, 8 May 2009 (UTC)

RFV failed, sense removed. —Ruakh_TALK 02:25, 24 November 2009 (UTC)

Chambers 1908's take on the "medical sensation" sense

They say: "a sensation as of a current of cold air, a premonitory symptom of epilepsy and hysteria". We mention a premonitory sensation for epilepsy and migraine, but not the obsolete diagnosis of "hysteria" (might merit a historical sense?), nor do we say that it's like a current of cold air; is that true? Equinox ◑ 15:25, 17 July 2018 (UTC)

@Equinox: I think the "cold air" part is an old misunderstanding. I have seen it in another dictionary too. The word "aura" in the modern meanings seems to be a fairly new word, perhaps from the 1800s? Here in Sweden where I live it is first attested in 1924. Yes, there is the Latin and Greek words "aura" and "αὔρα" that means "breeze, soft wind", but I am pretty sure the modern word "aura" instead derives from the shiny aureola / aureole which has a similar meaning to halo. We even often use the word "aura" for things more properly named aureola, halo, glory, or corona. And aureola in turn derives from aureolus which means "made or covered in gold, golden" as in aurum = gold. The "aura" in the parapsychology sense is shiny and shaped like the aureola in religious paintings. And medical aura (related to migraine and epilepsy) can be a shiny visible phenomena when it affects the visual part of the brain, although the medical aura has any shape and doesn't specifically surround objects. So aura, as in shiny, as in golden. So I think the current Latin "breeze" etymology in the entry is most likely wrong.

Also, according to my friends that have epilepsy they just feel "weird" before an epileptic seizure, they don't feel a breeze. (They sometimes notice it a few seconds before the seizure so they have time to say "Ooh oh, I'm getting a seizure".)

Regarding the "hysteria" part: It is likely an old medical exaggeration. I have medical aura myself. When a medical aura attack affects certain parts of the brain we can become very irritable. In some cases we can't stand to be around people at all, and if people don't leave us alone when we ask them to we can become aggressive (as in yelling at them to leave). Note that until not long ago doctors thought that medical aura only affected women, probably because men tended to report medical issues and especially neurological issues much less. And back in the days when a woman didn't behave according to the societal norms (especially if she was "disagreeable" or did show any form of aggression) the standard go-to diagnosis was "hysteria".

--Davidgothberg (talk) 17:44, 11 March 2023 (UTC)