A single fermion is bound by a softcore central Coulomb potential V(r) =
-v/(r^q + b^q)^(1/q), v>0, b>0, q \ge 1, in d>1 spatial dimensions. Envelope
theory is used to construct analytic lower bounds for the discrete Dirac energy
spectrum. The results are compared to accurate eigenvalues obtained
numerically.Comment: 8 pages 1 figur