Re: Soul of a dead person?

Dear Ulrich,

I'm not a native speaker either. But I was curious what lead you to
this word-meaning search. How on earth could these words possibly
matter to us as they reflect a figment of human imagination and not
reality or scientifically verifiable truth? I think Matti is pretty
close when he says the terms 'soul' and 'spirit' probably refer to
something we can't see and experience physically. (I do believe you
can neither see or experience either of the other 'forms'.) But
'spirit' has been used in the other sense also, as in the case of
Shakespeare etc.

John Briggs has given it a well-researched answer which is an
etymologist's delight.

I wonder why Molly Mockford doesn't want her answer to be archived. It
is quite humorous and deserves to be archived, is my personal feeling.

I do hope the members of this group does not take this spirit-ghost-
phantom thing tooseriously and agree with me that this sort of
superstitions have only lead human civilisation backward. ('Phantom' I
think has a positive connotation as it is associated with Lee Falk's
comic.)

Paul.


 I am not an native speaker. Can someony please explain
> the difference between:
>
> Ghost
> Phantom
> Wraith
> Spectre
> Spirit
>
> My dictionary translates these words all to
> the same word.
>
> Thanking ou in advance,
> Uli