means Spirits can mean the souls or ghosts of the dead, a person's mood or vigor, or strong distilled alcohol like whisky and gin.

from All of these flow from the Latin spiritus, meaning 'breath' — from spirare, 'to breathe' — the ancient idea that life, soul, and animating force ride on the breath. As the word traveled through Old French and into English, it branched in several directions at once: the 'breath of life' became the soul that survives death (ghosts and spirits), the inner liveliness of a person (good spirits, high spirits), and — by way of medieval alchemy and distillation — the volatile, vapor-rich essence boiled off a liquid, which is why strong liquor came to be called spirits. The drunk, the dead, and the determined really do share one root: breath.