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The English word ''spirit'' (from Latin ''spiritus'' "breath") has many different meanings and connotations, most of them relating to a non-corporeal substance contrasted with the material body. It can also refer to a "subtle" as opposed to "gross" material substance, as in the famous last paragraph of Sir Isaac Newton's ''Principia Mathematica''. The word spirit is often used metaphysically to refer to the consciousness or personality. The notions of a person's spirit and soul often also overlap, as both contrast with body and both are believed to survive bodily death in some religions,〔OED "spirit 2.a.: The soul of a person, as commended to God, or passing out of the body, in the moment of death."〕 and "spirit" can also have the sense of "ghost", i.e. a manifestation of the spirit of a deceased person. The term may also refer to any incorporeal or immaterial being, such as demons or deities.〔 In the Bible, "the Spirit" (with a capital "S"), specifically denotes the Holy Spirit. == Etymology == The English word ''spirit'' comes from the Latin ''spiritus'', meaning "breath", but also "spirit, soul, courage, vigor", ultimately from a Proto-Indo-European '' *(s)peis''. It is distinguished from Latin ''anima'', "soul" (which nonetheless also derives from an Indo-European root meaning "to breathe", earliest form '' *h2enh1-'' 〔anə-, from *''ə2enə1-''. Watkins, Calvert. 2000. ''The American Heritage® Dictionary of Indo-European Roots'', second edition. Boston: Houghton-Mifflin Co., p.4. Also (available online ). (NB: Watkins uses ə1, ə2, ə3 as fully equivalent variants for h1, h2, h3, respectively, for the notation of Proto-Indo-European laryngeal segments.)〕). In Greek, this distinction exists between ''pneuma'' (πνεῦμα), "breath, motile air, spirit," and ''psykhē'' (ψυχή), "soul"〔François 2008, p.187-197.〕 (even though the latter term, ψῡχή = ''psykhē/psūkhē'', is also from an Indo-European root meaning "to breathe": '' *bhes-'', zero grade '' *bhs-'' devoicing in proto-Greek to '' *phs-'', resulting in historical-period Greek ''ps-'' in ''psūkhein'', "to breathe", whence ''psūkhē'', "spirit", "soul"〔''bhes-''2. Watkins, Calvert. 2000. ''The American Heritage® Dictionary of Indo-European Roots'', second edition. Boston: Houghton-Mifflin Co., 2000, p.11. Also (available online )〕). The word "spirit" came into Middle English via Old French. The distinction between soul and spirit also developed in the Abrahamic religions: Arabic ''nafs'' (نفس) opposite ''rúħ'' (روح); Hebrew ''neshama'' (נְשָׁמָה ''nəšâmâh'') or ''nephesh'' (in Hebrew ''neshama'' comes from the root ''NŠM'' or "breath") opposite ''ruach'' (רוּחַ ''rûaħ''). (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 נֶ֫פֶשׁ (root נפשׁ) and רוּחַ (root רוח), as well as cognate words in various Semitic languages, including Arabic, also preserve meanings involving misc. air phenomena: "breath", "wind", and even "odour".〔Koehler, L., Baumgartner, W., Richardson, M. E. J., & Stamm, J. J. (1999). The Hebrew and Aramaic lexicon of the Old Testament (electronic ed.) (711). Leiden; New York: E.J. Brill.〕〔Brown, F., Driver, S. R., & Briggs, C. A. (2000). Enhanced Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew and English Lexicon (electronic ed.) (659). Oak Harbor, WA: Logos Research Systems. (N.B. Corresponds closely to printed editions.)〕〔Brown, F., Driver, S. R., & Briggs, C. A. (2000). Enhanced Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew and English Lexicon (electronic ed.) (924ff.). Oak Harbor, WA: Logos Research Systems. (N.B. Corresponds closely to printed editions.)〕) In a lecture delivered to the literary Society of Augsburg, October 20, 1926, on the theme of “Nature and Spirit,” C. G. Jung, expressed: “The connection between ''spirit'' and ''life'' is one of those problems involving factors of such complexity that we have to be on our guard lest we ourselves get caught in the net of words in which we seek to ensnare these great enigmas. For how can we bring into the orbit of our thought those limitless complexities of life which we call "Spirit" or "Life" unless we clothe them in verbal concepts, themselves mere counters of the intellect? The mistrust of verbal concepts, inconvenient as it is, nevertheless seems to me to be very much in place in speaking of fundamentals. "Spirit" and "Life" are familiar enough words to us, very old acquaintances in fact, pawns that for thousands of years have been pushed back and forth on the thinker's chessboard. The problem must have begun in the grey dawn of time, when someone made the bewildering discovery that the living breath which left the body of the dying man in the last death-rattle meant more than just air in motion. It can scarcely be an accident onomatopoeic words like ruach, ruch, roho (Hebrew, Arabic, Swahili ) mean ‘spirit’ no less clearly than the Greek πνεύμα and the Latin spiritus.” 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「spirit」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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