The distinction between "soul" and "spirit" in English mirrors that between "psykhē" and "pneuma" in Classical Greek, with both words having a connection to breathing: A distinction between soul and spirit also developed in the Abrahamic religions: Arabic nafs (نفس) opposite rūḥ (روح); Hebrew neshama (נְשָׁמָה nəšâmâh) or nephesh (נֶ֫פֶשׁ nép̄eš) (in Hebrew neshama comes from the root NŠM or "breath") opposite ruach (רוּחַ rúaħ).
(Note, however, that in Semitic just as in Indo-European, this dichotomy has not always been as neat historically as it has come to be taken over a long period of development: Both נֶ֫פֶשׁ (root נפשׁ) and רוּחַ (root רוח), as well as cognate words in various Semitic languages, including Arabic, also preserve meanings involving miscellaneous air phenomena: "breath", "wind", and even "odour".
[5][6][7]) Similar concepts in other languages include Chinese Ling and hun (靈魂) and Sanskrit akasha / atman[2] (see also prana).
[2] In Ancient Greek medicine and philosophy generally, the spirit (pneuma, literally "breath") was thought to be the animating force in living creatures.
[16] However, other LDS scriptures teach that God organized the spirits out of a pre-existing substance called "intelligence" or "the light of truth".
"Spirit" and "Life" are familiar enough words to us, very old acquaintances in fact, pawns that for thousands of years have been pushed back and forth on the thinker's chessboard.
The problem must have begun in the grey dawn of time, when someone made the bewildering discovery that the living breath which left the body of the dying man in the last death-rattle meant more than just air in motion.
It can scarcely be an accident onomatopoeic words like ruach (Hebrew), ruch (Arabic), roho (Swahili) mean 'spirit' no less clearly than πνεύμα (pneuma, Greek) and spiritus (Latin).
[23]People have frequently conceived of spirit as a supernatural being, or non-physical entity; for example, a demon, ghost, fairy, or angel.