Other forms: spirits
A spirit is a being without a body — a ghost, an angel, the soul of a person. It is also the immaterial part of a living person: body, mind and spirit.
From there the word fans out a long way. Spirit means courage and energy — fighting spirit, team spirit, she took it in good spirit. Spirits in the plural means mood — in high spirits, my spirits sank — and also strong alcoholic drinks, which is why a shop sells wines and spirits. And the spirit of a law or an agreement is its intention as against its letter, which is one of the most useful distinctions in the language.
1nounspiritA being without a body, or the immaterial part of a person.
“The house is supposed to have a spirit in the attic.”
2nouncourageCourage, energy and determination.
“The team showed a great deal of spirit in the second half.”
3nounmoodMood or state of mind.
“Everybody was in high spirits by then.”
4nounstrongA strong alcoholic drink.
“The bar is licensed for wine and spirits.”
5nounrealThe real intention behind a rule, as against its exact words.
“That follows the letter of the rule and not the spirit of it.”
Too few real examples of this word to estimate which sense is commonest.
spirit is an immaterial being or quality.
Latin spiritus meant breath, from spirare, to breathe — the same verb behind inspire, respire and conspire, which is to breathe together. Nearly every language ties the soul to the breath, and English does it through a Latin word rather than a native one.
Middle English
spirit
English, today
spirit
From Middle English spirit. From Middle English spirit, from Old French espirit (“spirit”), from Latin spīritus (“breath; spirit”), from Proto-Indo-European (s)peys- (“to blow, breathe”). Compare inspire, respire, transpire, all ultimately from Latin spīrō (“to breathe, blow, respire”). In this sense, displaced native Middle English gast (from gāst), whence modern English ghost. a doublet of spiritus and spirytus and sprite and spright and esprit.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA