In folk belief, spirit is the

vital principle Vitalism is a belief that starts from the premise that "living organisms are fundamentally different from non-living entities because they contain some non-physical element or are governed by different principles than are inanimate things." Wher ...

or animating essence within all living things. As recently as 1628 and 1633 respectively, both William Harvey and René Descartes still speculated that somewhere within the body, in a special locality, there was a "vital spirit" or "vital force", which animated the whole bodily frame, just as the engine in a factory moves the machinery in it.

Overview

People have frequently conceived of spirit as a

supernatural Supernatural refers to phenomena or entities that are beyond the laws of nature. The term is derived from Medieval Latin , from Latin (above, beyond, or outside of) + (nature) Though the corollary term "nature", has had multiple meanings si ...

being, or non-physical entity; for example, a

demon A demon is a malevolent supernatural entity. Historically, belief in demons, or stories about demons, occurs in religion, occultism, literature, fiction, mythology, and folklore; as well as in media such as comics, video games, movies, ani ...

ghost A ghost is the soul or spirit of a dead person or animal that is believed to be able to appear to the living. In ghostlore, descriptions of ghosts vary widely from an invisible presence to translucent or barely visible wispy shapes, to rea ...

fairy A fairy (also fay, fae, fey, fair folk, or faerie) is a type of mythical being or legendary creature found in the folklore of multiple European cultures (including Celtic, Slavic, Germanic, English, and French folklore), a form of spirit, ...

, or angel. In ancient

Islam Islam (; ar, ۘالِإسلَام, , ) is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic Monotheism#Islam, monotheistic religion centred primarily around the Quran, a religious text considered by Muslims to be the direct word of God in Islam, God (or ...

ic terminology however, the term ''spirit'' ('' rūḥ''), applies only to "pure" spirits, but not to other invisible creatures, such as jinn,

demons A demon is a malevolent supernatural entity. Historically, belief in demons, or stories about demons, occurs in religion, occultism, literature, fiction, mythology, and folklore; as well as in media such as comics, video games, movies, anime, ...

and angels. Historically, spirit has been used to refer to a "subtle" as opposed to "gross" material substance, as put forth in the notable last paragraph of Sir Isaac Newton's '' Principia Mathematica''. In

English Bibles Partial Bible translations into languages of the English people can be traced back to the late 7th century, including translations into Old and Middle English. More than 100 complete translations into English have been written. In the United St ...

, "the Spirit" (with a capital "S"), specifically denotes the

Holy Spirit In Judaism, the Holy Spirit is the divine force, quality, and influence of God over the Universe or over his creatures. In Nicene Christianity, the Holy Spirit or Holy Ghost is the third person of the Trinity. In Islam, the Holy Spirit acts as ...

. The concepts of spirit and soul often overlap, and some systems propose that both survive bodily death. "Spirit" can have the sense of "ghost", i.e. a manifestation of the spirit of a deceased person. "Spirit" is also often used to refer to the consciousness or personality.

Etymology

The word ''spirit'' came into Middle English via Old French ''esperit''. Its source is Latin ''spīritus'', whose original meaning was "breath, breathing" and hence "spirit, soul, courage, vigor"; its ultimate origin is a Proto-Indo-European root '. In Latin, was distinct from Latin ''anima'', whose etymological meaning was also "breathing" (

PIE A pie is a baked dish which is usually made of a pastry dough casing that contains a filling of various sweet or savoury ingredients. Sweet pies may be filled with fruit (as in an apple pie), nuts ( pecan pie), brown sugar ( sugar pie), swe ...

root *''h₂enh₁-''), yet which had taken a slightly different meaning, namely " soul". Classical Greek also had a similar distinction between "soul" and "spirit", in each case involving again an etymological sense "breathing": * ( ψυχή), originally "cold air", hence "breath of life" and "soul"See François 2009, pp. 187–197. (

root ' "to breathe"). * ( πνεῦμα) "breath, motile air, spirit", from verb ( πνέω) "to breathe". A distinction between soul and spirit also developed in the Abrahamic religions: Arabic ( نفس) opposite ( روح); Hebrew '' neshama'' ( ) or '' nephesh'' ( ) (in Hebrew comes from the root or "breath") opposite ( ). (Note, however, that in Semitic just as in Indo-European, this dichotomy has not ''always'' been as neat historically as it has come to be taken over a long period of development: Both (root ) and (root ), as well as cognate words in various Semitic languages, including Arabic, also preserve meanings involving miscellaneous air phenomena: "breath", "wind", and even "odour".)

Usage

"Spirit" has acquired a number of meanings: *

Christian theology Christian theology is the theology of Christianity, Christian belief and practice. Such study concentrates primarily upon the texts of the Old Testament and of the New Testament, as well as on Christian tradition. Christian theology, theologian ...

can use the term "Spirit" to refer to the

. **

Christian Science Christian Science is a set of beliefs and practices associated with members of the Church of Christ, Scientist. Adherents are commonly known as Christian Scientists or students of Christian Science, and the church is sometimes informally know ...

uses "Spirit" as one of seven synonyms for God, as in: "Principle; Mind; Soul; Spirit; Life; Truth; Love" **

Latter Day Saint The Latter Day Saint movement (also called the LDS movement, LDS restorationist movement, or Smith–Rigdon movement) is the collection of independent church groups that trace their origins to a Christian Restorationist movement founded by Jo ...

prophet

Joseph Smith Jr. Joseph Smith Jr. (December 23, 1805June 27, 1844) was an American religious leader and founder of Mormonism and the Latter Day Saint movement. When he was 24, Smith published the Book of Mormon. By the time of his death, 14 years later, he ...

(1805-1844) rejected the concept of spirit as incorporeal or without substance: "There is no such thing as immaterial matter. All spirit is matter, but it is more fine or pure, and can only be discerned by purer eyes." Regarding the soul, Joseph Smith wrote "And the Gods formed man from the dust of the ground, and took his spirit (that is, the man’s spirit), and put it into him; and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul." Thus, the soul is the combination of a spirit with a body (although most members of the Church use "soul" and "spirit" interchangeably). In Latter-Day Saint scripture, spirits are sometimes referred to as "intelligences". However, other LDS scriptures teach that God organized the spirits out of a pre-existing substance called "intelligence" or "the light of truth". While this may seem confusing, compare how a programmer writes an algorithm by organizing lines of logical code. The logic always existed, independent of the programmer, but it is the creator who organizes it into a living spirit / intelligence / soul. * Various forms of animism, such as Japan's Shinto and African traditional religion, focus on invisible beings that represent or connect with plants, animals, or

landform A landform is a natural or anthropogenic land feature on the solid surface of the Earth or other planetary body. Landforms together make up a given terrain, and their arrangement in the landscape is known as topography. Landforms include hills, ...

s (in Japanese: '' kami''): translators usually employ the English word "spirit" when trying to express the idea of such entities. Compare the concepts of ancestral spirits and of

spirit animal Spirit animal may refer to: Spirituality * Power animal, a New Age, neoshamanic belief of a spirit that helps an individual * Spirit guide, a spiritual entity that acts as a guide or protector to a human being * Totem, in North American Indigenous ...

s. * According to

C. G. Jung Carl Gustav Jung ( ; ; 26 July 1875 – 6 June 1961) was a Swiss psychiatrist and psychoanalyst who founded analytical psychology. Jung's work has been influential in the fields of psychiatry, anthropology, archaeology, literature, phi ...

(in a lecture delivered to the literary Society of Augsburg, 20 October 1926, on the theme of “Nature and Spirit”): * Psychical research, "In all the publications of the Society for Psychical Research the term 'spirit' stands for ''the personal stream of consciousness'' whatever else it may ultimately be proved to imply or require" (

James H. Hyslop James Hervey Hyslop, Ph.D., LL.D, (August 18, 1854 – June 17, 1920) was an American psychical researcher, psychologist, and professor of ethics and logic at Columbia University. He was one of the first American psychologists to connect ...

, 1919). * Paranormal spirits: usually a nickname for a

or other undead spirit.

Related concepts

Similar concepts in other languages include Greek '' pneuma'', Chinese ''Ling'' and ''hun'' (靈魂) and Sanskrit ''

akasha Akasha or Akash (Sanskrit ' ) means space or sky or æther in traditional Indian cosmology, depending on the religion. The term has also been adopted in Western occultism and spiritualism in the late 19th century. In many modern Indo-Aryan la ...

atman Atman or Ātman may refer to: Film * ''Ātman'' (1975 film), a Japanese experimental short film directed by Toshio Matsumoto * ''Atman'' (1997 film), a documentary film directed by Pirjo Honkasalo People * Pavel Atman (born 1987), Russian hand ...

'' (see also ''

prana In yoga, Indian medicine and Indian martial arts, prana ( sa2, प्राण, ; the Sanskrit word for breath, " life force", or "vital principle") permeates reality on all levels including inanimate objects. In Hindu literature, prāṇa is ...

''). Some languages use a word for spirit often closely related (if not synonymous) to ''

mind The mind is the set of faculties responsible for all mental phenomena. Often the term is also identified with the phenomena themselves. These faculties include thought, imagination, memory, will, and sensation. They are responsible for various m ...

''. Examples include the German ''

Geist ''Geist'' () is a German noun with a significant degree of importance in German philosophy. Its semantic field corresponds to English ghost, spirit, mind, intellect. Some English translators resort to using "spirit/mind" or "spirit (mind)" to he ...

'' (related to the English word ''ghost'') or the French ''l'esprit''. English versions of the Bible most commonly translate the Hebrew word ''ruach'' (רוח; ''wind'') as "the spirit." Alternatively, Hebrew texts commonly use the word '' nephesh''. Kabbalists regard ''nephesh'' as one of the five parts of the Jewish soul, where ''nephesh'' (animal) refers to the physical being and its animal instincts. Similarly, Scandinavian,

Baltic Baltic may refer to: Peoples and languages * Baltic languages, a subfamily of Indo-European languages, including Lithuanian, Latvian and extinct Old Prussian *Balts (or Baltic peoples), ethnic groups speaking the Baltic languages and/or originati ...

, and Slavic languages, as well as

Chinese Chinese can refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation ** List of ethnic groups in China, people of va ...

( 气 ''qi''), use the words for ''breath'' to express concepts similar to "the spirit".

References

External links

* * {{Authority control Deities and spirits Ghosts Religious philosophical concepts Spirituality Vitalism Supernatural legends