spirit
English, from Latin · spiritus
Spirit begins as breath. Later it becomes wind, ghost, courage, alcohol, and God.
- spirare
- to breathe (Latin)
Morphology
Latin spiritus: breath, breeze, the animating air. Related to Greek pneuma and Hebrew ruach only as later translators decided they were. The kinship is analogical, not a single ancient word.
Semantic range
Breath, life-force, ghost, Holy Spirit, morale, distilled liquor.
History of the word
Christian theology made spirit a person of the Trinity. Chemistry made it a distillate. Psychology made it a mood. The older breath is still audible in expire, inspire, respiratory.
Associated traditions
Parallels, not equivalents. Different attempts to notice something about knowing.
Hebrew
ruach
Wind, breath, spirit of God; not a synonym.
Greek
pneuma
Wind and breath; Stoic and Christian uses diverge.
Arabic
rūḥ
Spirit; paired with nafs, not identical to it.
A distant linguistic echo
ruach
Hebrew · See the plate ruach.
How the word shifts
When English says “spiritual but not religious,” spirit has been unhooked from breath and from church. That unhooking is a modern event.
soul
The weather in the word: wind, breath, motion. Soul sits still more easily.
A story where the word matters
Nearby words
Neighbors, not translations of one concept.
From this word
If spirit is breath, what happens to it when the breathing stops being yours?
One question remains
What does this word let us notice that English “consciousness” does not?
It lets us notice animation as air, not as a lamp inside a skull.