Spirit
Spirit is from Proto Indo European peis or speis, meaning “to blow”. Interestingly, PIE had three other words homophonous with peis, one meaning “to crush”, another meaning “fish”, and a third meaning “weight”; whether these roots were related to “to blow” is unknown. In any case, it descended into Latin as the verb spirare, “to breathe”, which gave us transpire, expire, aspire, conspire, inspire, and others.
In Classical (pre-imperial or pagan) Latin, the usual word for “soul” or “spirit” was animus (or female anima); but as Christianity spread during the imperial period, the word spiritus became more common because it appeared in the Latin Bible as the translation of the Greek pneuma, “breath, spirit”, which in turn was a translation of the Hebrew ruah, “breath, spirit”. Thus a Hebrew metaphor equating breath and spirit was carried forward in the Greek and Latin translations. English Bibles, however, did not translate spiritus as breath — they simply borrowed spiritus as spirit (or, occasionally, used the word ghost, which did not preserve the metaphor).
Spirit begins with strong energy emerging from a point, moving a long distance down a path with stamina and great force. The meaning here is clearest if it’s kept in mind that the primary syllable of spirit is identical with that of spear. Spirit’s second syllable, however, extends the meaning by indicating that the result of the forceful, directed energy is a light upward movement along an open path. Together, the sounds of spirit indicate the tremendous force that Spirit can exert on our lives, as well as the gentler light, upward motion it engenders in quieter moments; but in either case the energy and the movement are directed, moving us forward inexorably.
Thanks to Jessa for suggesting this word of the day.
July 2nd, 2007 at 12:12 pm
Jeff, I wonder if this “fish” is where earlier Christianity got the symbol of the fish that they used to represent themselves from? I have always wondered about that. Also, just a thought, some of Jesus’s followers were fishermen. Have a glorious day. Patricia
July 3rd, 2007 at 7:11 am
That is an awesome insight, Patricia!
Here’s what I know:
A mainstream researcher in the history of languages would say that this Proto Indo European word is completely unrelated to the Christian fish symbol. When Christianity was born, the words for ‘fish’ and ’spirit’ were about 6,000 years separated; and besides, Jesus and his followers spoke Aramaic, an unrelated language. I tend to agree that it’s extremely unlikely that there’s a historical connection here. But that doesn’t mean that there isn’t a deeper spiritual connection between ’spirit’ and ‘fish’ — a connection that was picked up on by both the Christians and the ancient Indo Europeans.
As far as I know, Christianity is associated with the fish particularly because of what you mention — that some of Jesus’s followers were fisherman, and there is a famous scene in Matthew 4:19, when Jesus encounters the fishermen Simon, Peter, and Andrew, and says, “Come, follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.” They follow him; and immediately afterwards he meets two other fishers, James and John, who follow him as well.
I have also heard it said that Christianity’s fish symbolism is appropriate for the Age of Pisces, which began right around Jesus’s time and is ending now.
July 3rd, 2007 at 12:57 pm
Thanks for sharing your knowledge. Patricia