Anime is English's own word bounced back — Latin "soul" became English "animation," which Japan shortened to "anime" and sent back with a new meaning.
A style of animation originating in Japan, characterized by distinctive visual aesthetics and encompassing a wide range of genres and demographics.
From Japanese アニメ (anime), a clipping of アニメーション (animēshon), itself borrowed from English 'animation.' The English word 'animation' derives from Latin animatio, from animare ('to give life to'), from anima ('breath, soul, life'). Key roots: *h₂enh₁- (Proto-Indo-European: "to breathe"), anima (Latin: "breath, soul, spirit, life"), animare (Latin: "to give life, to enliven").
The word "anime" is a boomerang loanword — it started as Latin anima ("breath, soul"), became English "animation," was borrowed into Japanese as アニメーション (animēshon), got clipped to アニメ (anime), and then bounced back into English with a completely new, narrower meaning. In Japan, "anime" refers to ALL animation — Disney, Pixar, everything. It only means "specifically Japanese animation" in English, a meaning the Japanese word never had. So English borrowed back its own word and gave it a definition the source language doesn't recognize