|
GHOSTS AND SPIRITS
There is no basic difference in meaning between
“ghost” and “spirit”. They are an instance of the rich
double vocabulary that is English.
“Ghost” is from the
Anglo-Saxon gast (cf. German: der Heilige Geist = the
Holy Ghost); "spirit" is from the Latin spiritus (cf.
French: le Saint Esprit = the Holy Spirit).
However, as the English language developed, each took on
new connotations. “Ghost” tended to be of a definite
person—the ghost of Charles I; “spirit” began to be less
definite in its meaning: “a spirit passed before my
face” (Job 4:15), but we are not told whose spirit. From
being the spirit of man (“Jacob gave up the ghost”),
“ghost” came to mean the appearing of a person after he
had died, as in innumerable ghost stories; the spirit
was part of a person while he was alive.
|
|
Therefore, “The
Lord be with you”—“and with thy spirit”. “And with thy
ghost” would only be after the rector was dead; and that
would be inappropriate because the ghosts of good people
(I am assuming that your rector comes in this category)
were not supposed to appear to people, as in the
forbidden raising of the ghost of Samuel by the Witch
of Endor.
“Spirit” also had a non-human association. Witches
were said to have “a familiar spirit”; a witch that had “a familiar
ghost” would not be thought of in the same way. The spirit would
appear to and be used by the witch; the ghost would be a “normal”
haunting, uncontrolled by the witch. “Ghost” became more concrete
(if one can have concrete ghosts) and “spirit” more abstract. A
spirited family would not necessarily have a family ghost. “Ghost”
became negative (“not the ghost of a chance”), while “spirit” became
positive (“a spirited reply”).
There is a quiet
spirit in these woods,
That dwells where'er the gentle south-wind blows;
Where, underneath the white-thorn, in the glade,
The wild flowers bloom, or, kissing the soft air,
The leaves above their sunny palms outspread.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow,
The Spirit of Poetry
|
