Etymology

spiritual

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Today it means: Of or pertaining to the spirit or the soul. Full definition →

Middle English spiritual ← Old French spiritue ← Late Latin spīrituālis
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The story

  1. Proto-Indo-European*(s)peys-der.?
  2. Latinspīrō
  3. Latinspīritus
  4. Proto-Indo-European*h₂el-
  5. Proto-Indo-European*h₂élisder.?
  6. Late Latinspīrituālis
  7. Old Frenchspiritue
  8. Middle Englishspiritual
  9. English todayspiritual

From Middle English spiritual, spirituel, from Old French spirituel, from Late Latin spīrituālis, from Latin spīritus. By surface analysis, spirit + -ual.

Words from the same roots

Latinspīritus all →

spiritspritespiritussprightly

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.