Etymology

perispirit

P3E1R1I1S1P3I1R1I1T1

Today it means: A layer of an abstract, ethereal material that is said by spiritualists to serve as the bond between one's spirit and physical body. Full definition →

English spirit ← Middle English spirit ← Old French espirit
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The story

  1. Proto-Indo-European*per-
  2. Ancient Greekπερῐ́ (perĭ́)
  3. Englishperi-
  4. Proto-Indo-European*(s)peys-der.?
  5. Latinspīrō
  6. Latinspīritu
  7. Old Frenchespirit
  8. Middle Englishspirit
  9. Englishspirit
  10. English todayperispirit

From peri- + spirit. In Allan Kardec's 1857 book The Spirits Book (Le Livre des Esprits in original French), the term is defined with a direct analogy to perisperm (“layer of nutritive tissue that surrounds the embryo of a seed in some angiosperms”).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.