the.com/spirit
the unkillable thing that lifts armies, haunts houses, and somehow ends up in your glass
means The non-physical essence of a person or thing — variously the soul, the mood or attitude that animates a group, a supernatural being, or a strong distilled alcohol.
from From Latin spiritus, "breath, breathing," from spirare, "to breathe" — the same root that gives us inspire, expire, and respire. The ancients tied life to breath: when you stopped breathing, the spirit left. The word arrived in English through Old French esperit, mostly carried in religious texts. The boozy sense came later from alchemy, where "spirits" were the volatile vapors drawn off by distillation — the breath of the substance, captured.
- proof origin
- alcohol strength called 'proof' from gunpowder ignition tests
- language root
- comes from Latin spiritus, meaning breath
- distilled trick
- distillation captures the 'spirit' as vapor rising
- team energy
- school spirit measurably boosts athletic performance
- unweighable
- a doctor once tried weighing the departing soul
spirit airlines — ultra-low-cost carrier operating 600+ daily flights from fort lauderdale hub since 1983
spirit lake iowa — glacial lake in dickinson county, iowa where the town of spirit lake was founded in 1857