Spirit

December 21, 2004 9:46 PM

EtymologyFilter: Was the word "spirit" first used to describe alcohol, or the non-physical portion of the self, ghosts, etc.?
posted by b1tr0t to writing & language (12 comments total)

Online Etymology Dictionary entry for spirit.
posted by DevilsAdvocate at 9:54 PM on December 21, 2004

According to the (very excellent) Online Etymological Dictionary: "Plural form spirits 'volatile substance' is an alchemical idea, first attested 1610; sense narrowed to 'strong alcoholic liquor' by 1678."

On preview, what DevilsAdvocate said ;)
posted by contraposto at 9:58 PM on December 21, 2004

OED says... 1684 for the alcoholic meaning, 1250 for the soul, various dates in the 1300s for ghosts and other incorporeal entities.
posted by kindall at 10:00 PM on December 21, 2004

This is also interesting because several languages, including the Gaelic (Whiskey) and the Russian (Vodka) use their base alcohol word to mean "Water of Life".

Makes ya think, huh?
posted by interrobang at 10:27 PM on December 21, 2004

OED says the alcoholic meaning is part of a family which includes four substances called spirits by medieval alchemists:

V. {dag}20. a. One or other of four substances so named by the mediaeval alchemists. Obs.


c1386 CHAUCER Can. Yeom. Prol. & T. 60 Ne eek oure spirites Ascencioun..Mowe in oure werkyng no thyng vs auaille. Ibid. 103 The firste spirit quyk siluer called is, The seconde Orpyment, the thridde ywis Sal Armonyak, and the ferthe Brymstoon. 1390 GOWER Conf. II. 84 Of bodies sevene..With foure spiritz joynt withal Stant the substance of this matiere.

{dag}b. spirit of the world: (see quot.).

1651 FRENCH Distill. v. 107 In the element of Water there is a great plenty of the Spirit of the world,..and..this Spirit hath three distinct substances, viz. Salt, Sulphur, and Mercury.

{dag}c. spec. Mercury. Obs.

1704 J. HARRIS Lex. Techn. I, Spirit, which the Chymists call Mercury, is one of the 5 Principles separable from a Mixt, by Fire. 1725 WATTS Logic I. ii. §2 The chemist makes spirit, salt, sulphur, water, and earth, to be their five elements. 1728 CHAMBERS Cycl. s.v. Element, Mercury, which they [sc. chemists] also call Spirit.

{dag}d. (See quot.) Obs.^{em}1

1733 W. ELLIS Chiltern & Vale Farm. 200 The Exhalations of the Sun that draws up a moist Vapour from the Earth, by some, called the Spirit, by others, the Salt of the Earth.

21. a. A liquid of the nature of an essence or extract from some substance, esp. one obtained by distillation; a solution in alcohol of some essential or volatile principle.

1610 B. JONSON Alch. II. vi, H'is busie with his spirits, but wee'll vpon him. 1651 FRENCH Distill. v. 139 Dissolve any sulphurous..metall..in Aqua fortis, or any other acid Spirit. 1728 CHAMBERS Cycl. s.v., The Chymists are said to draw a Spirit from Sulphur, Salt and other Bodies, when they extract the Essence..by Distillation or otherwise. 1813 SIR H. DAVY Agric. Chem. (1814) 136 All the common spirits may, I find, be deprived of their peculiar flavour by repeatedly digesting them with..charcoal and quicklime. 1831 J. DAVIES Mat. Med. 36 The spirits have a weaker odour than the distilled waters. 1875 H. C. WOOD Therap. (1879) 18 Spirits are alcoholic solutions of volatile principles made by direct solution or by distillation from the crude drugs.


fig. 1613 SYLVESTER (title), Lachrymæ Lachrymarum: or the Spirit of Teares, distilled for the vntymely Death of the incomparable Prince of Wales. 1639 FULLER Holy War II. xxxiv. (1840) 94 These Assassins..had in them the very spirits of that poisonous superstition. 1742 YOUNG Nt. Th. IV. 144 To drink the spirit of the golden day, And triumph in existence.

b. Without article: Liquid such as is obtained by distillation, spec. that which is of an alcoholic nature. Also pl.

sing. 1610 B. JONSON Alch. I. i, Have I..Wrought thee to spirit, to quintessence, with paines Would twise haue won me the philosophers worke? 1688 HOLME Armoury III. xx. (Roxb.) 250/2 Wine coopers termes:..Spiritt, wine double distilled. 1726 Dict. Rust., Spirit dulcified, a choice Remedy for the Cholick in Horses. a1774 GOLDSM. Surv. Exp. Philos. (1776) I. 380 A solid that will swim in water, will sink in spirit. 1799 G. SMITH Laboratory I. 334 In this manner are extracted from roses the three principles, spirit, oil, and salt. 1815 J. SMITH Panorama Sci. & Art II. 576 The substances from which spirit is obtained are usually barley, wheat, oats, rye, sugar, or molasses. 1854 RONALDS & RICHARDSON Chem. Technol. (ed. 2) I. 289 In this manner, by one operation, spirit containing about 60 per cent. of alcohol is obtained. 1863 HUXLEY Man's Place in Nat. I. 16 M. Palm..shot one, and forwarded it to Batavia in spirit.


pl. 1800 SOUTHEY in C. C. Southey Life (1850) II. 91 The head and hands were sent here; I have seen them in the Museum, in spirits.
c. orig. pl. Strong alcoholic liquor for drinking, obtained from various substances by distillation; sing. any particular kind of this.


1684 BUNYAN Pilgr. II. 67 He gave me also a piece of an Honey-comb, and a little Bottle of Spirits. 1742-3 HERVEY in Johnson's Deb. (1787) II. 409 It is not to be doubted, my Lords, but that spirits will, by this additional duty, be made one third part dearer. 1833 H. MARTINEAU Vanderput & S. vi. 95 Every body agreed that spirits were the only safeguard against the perils of ditch water. 1884 Graphic 29 Nov. 562/2 An exuberance of animal spirits occasionally increased by spirits of another character.


sing. 1840 DICKENS Old C. Shop xxi, Quilp..drank three small glass-fulls of the raw spirit. 1848 THACKERAY Van. Fair lxvii, When she was prevailed on..to take a little spirit-and-water. 1884 J. P. QUINCY Figures of Past 265 The use of wine and spirit was practically universal at the time of which I am speaking.

d. With of (the name of the liquor). rare.

1700 T. BROWN tr. Fresny's Amusem. viii. Wks. 1709 III. I. 77 To the Charms of Coffee the wiser sort joyn'd Spirit of Clary, Usquebaugh, and Brandy. 1831 SCOTT Cast. Dang. xiii, Wilt thou take some refreshment?{em}or shall we go on without the spirit of muscadel?

22. a. An essence, distilled extract, or alcoholic solution, of a specified substance. Freq. pl., esp. in later use.
Only the earlier or more important of these special designations are illustrated here: see also TURPENTINE, VITRIOL, and WINE.

a1700 EVELYN Diary 27 Oct. 1675, By applying hot fire~pans and *spirit of amber to his head. 1737 [see AMBER n.¹ 3b].

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1839 URE Dict. Arts 1158 *Spirit of Ammonia is, properly speaking, alcohol combined with ammonia gas; but the term is often applied to water of ammonia. 1871 GARROD Mat. Med. (ed. 3) 47 Aromatic Spirit of Ammonia... Often called Sal Volatile.

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1853 ROYLE Mat. Med. (ed. 2) 599 *Spirit of Camphor... Dissolve Camphor..in Rectified Spirit.

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Ibid 701 *Spirit of Ether..Mix Sulphuric Ether..with Rectified Spirit. Ibid., Compound Spirit of Ether. 1871 GARROD Mat. Med. (ed. 3) 149 Spirit of ether is employed in making the ethereal tincture of lobelia.

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1683-4 BOYLE Mem. Nat. Hist. Hum. Blood 122 The *Sp. of Harts-horn. 1685 [see HARTSHORN 2]. 1826 HENRY Elem. Chem. II. 609 Spirit of Hartshorn. This may be counterfeited by mixing the aqua ammoniæ puræ with the distilled spirit of hartshorn.

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1666 BOYLE Orig. Forms & Qual. 337, I did..make a red *spirit of Nitre, by the help onely of Oyl of Vitriol. 1710 J. CLARKE tr. Rohault's Nat. Philos. (1729) I. 113 A few Drops of Spirit of Nitre or of Oil of Vitriol. 1823 J. BADCOCK Dom. Amusem. 45 A strong solution of mercury, made with spirit of nitre.

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1853 ROYLE Mat. Med. (ed. 2) 702 *Spirit of Nitric Ether. Hyponitrous Ether dissolved in Rectified Spirit. Sweet Spirits of Nitre.

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1859 MAYNE Expos. Lex. 1189/2 *Spirit of nitrous ether. 1871 GARROD Mat. Med. (ed. 3) 151 Spirit of nitrous ether..is popularly known by the name of Sweet Spirits of Nitre.

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1779 Phil. Trans. LXX. 40 Apply to the precipitate solution of volatile alkali, sold by the name of *spirit of sal ammoniac.

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1651 FRENCH Distill. i. 36 The *Spirit of salt being rectified may serve again. 1779 Phil. Trans. LXX. 30 Half an ounce of muriatic acid sold by the name of spirit of salt. 1807 T. THOMSON Chem. (ed. 3) II. 611 This residuum is usually called bittern, and sometimes in Scotland spirit of salt. 1860 Ure's Dict. Arts (ed. 5) II. 481 The solution of hydrochloric acid in water is the muriatic acid and spirit of salt of commerce.

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1753 Chambers' Cycl. Suppl. s.v. Silk, If spirit of wine be poured upon spirit of sal armoniac, or *spirit of silk.

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1704 J. HARRIS Lex. Techn. I, *Spirit of Sulphur, commonly call'd Oil of Sulphur,..is only the acid Part of Sulphur turned into a Liquor by the means of Fire.

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1651 FRENCH Distill. iii. 66 Dissolve Salt-Armoniack in..*spirit of Urine. 1710 J. CLARKE tr. Rohault's Nat. Philos. (1729) I. 129 An equal Quantity of Spirits of Wine and Spirits of Urine.

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1797 Encycl. Brit. (ed. 3) IV. 598 (Plate), Pyroligneous acid. *Spirit of wood.

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b. Dyeing. (See quots.)

1875 KNIGHT Dict. Mech. 428/1 [In] spirit-color printing, the colors are produced by a mixture of dye extracts and solution of tin, called by the dyers spirits of tin. 1877 Encycl. Brit. VII. 574/2 The so-called nitrate of tin (sometimes called ‘bowl spirits’, from being prepared in an earthenware bowl). 1880 D. SMITH Pract. Dyer's Guide (title-p.), Receipts for making all the Dye Spirits with which to dye every colour in the work.

I now pray before the gods of fair use.
posted by grouse at 5:18 AM on December 22, 2004

several languages, including the Gaelic (Whiskey) and the Russian (Vodka) use their base alcohol word to mean "Water of Life"

True for the Gaelic; the Russian just means 'little water.'

grouse, did you really need to quote all that? I don't care about the OED's copyright, I just think it wastes a lot of space. A few selected quotations would have more than satisfied people's curiosity, and the whole of def. 22 could have been omitted without loss. As it is, I suspect people's eyes will glaze over and they'll just skip the whole thing. Brevity is the soul of wit.
posted by languagehat at 6:27 AM on December 22, 2004

Perhaps also of interest: The Wind.

Excerpt:The ancient languages offer a remarkable answer. All of them used the same word for wind, for breath, and for soul. In Sanskrit that word is atman; in Latin it's either spiritus or anima; in Hebrew it's ru-ach; and in Greek it's pneuma. You find pneuma and spiritus in air-related words like pneumatic and respiration.
posted by spock at 8:12 AM on December 22, 2004

interrobang may have been thinking of aquavit.
posted by Sidhedevil at 8:50 AM on December 22, 2004

languagehat: You are so totally right, I should have edited it more carefully.
posted by grouse at 10:23 AM on December 22, 2004

Spock: ancient languages or ancient Indo-European languages? Those languages are all in the same family; finding similar conceptual links is not all that surprising. I'd be really interested if that was also true in say, Chinese or Inuit.

I love the old alchemical connotations of spirits. To hell with obsolesence!
posted by e^2 at 2:21 PM on December 24, 2004

Hebrew is Indo-European? You learn something every day here on MetaFilter.
posted by languagehat at 11:43 AM on December 25, 2004

Ah, oops. Well you'd know better than I on that. Three out of four, then. And one likely to have been influenced by? (Which language family is Hebrew, by the way?)
posted by e^2 at 11:33 AM on December 26, 2004