Etymologically
Log in

spiritalis

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 24 October 2026 at 18:47. This address is a permanent link to this version.
Changes in this edit History

Pronunciation

  • Classical: [spiː.rɪˈtaː.lɪs][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [spi.riˈtaː.lis][1]

Forms

spīritālis (neuter spīritāle, adverb spīritāliter); third-declension two-termination adjective[1] The manuscripts vary between spīritālis and spīrituālis.[2][3]

Etymology

It is from Latin spīritus (“breath, spirit”) + -ālis.[1][3][4] The English word spiritual comes from Old French or directly from the medieval Latin word.[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Vitruvius is the first to have it, for a class of machines worked by air, which he says the Greeks call πνευματικόν (pneumatikón).[2][3]

Semantic evolution

Its first sense was “of the air or wind”, and then “of breathing”: Lactantius calls the windpipe a fistula spīritālis, and Arnobius uses it of the arteries.[2][3] In Christian Latin it came to mean “of the spirit”, immaterial or spiritual, opposed to carnālis “of the flesh”;[3] Tertullian speaks of spiritual substances,[2] and the Vulgate has it in the letters to the Galatians and the Corinthians.[2] The neuter plural spīritālia nēquitiae meant the evil spirits.[3]

Medieval Latin added the sense “seen from the point of view of the supernatural” and “symbolical, mystical”, of the spiritual reading of sacred texts.[6] As a noun, spīrituālis was a cleric.[4]

Timeline

  • c. 84–c. 25 BC – Vitruvius uses it of machines worked by air.[2][4]
  • c. 160–220 AD – Tertullian uses it for spiritual, as opposed to bodily, substances.[2][4]
  • c. 250–317 AD – Lactantius calls the windpipe fistula spīritālis.[2][4]
  • 390–406 AD – The Vulgate uses it for “spiritual”.[2][4]
  • 1049–1054 – Spīrituālis “cleric” appears in Pope Leo IX.[4]
  • c. 1300 – English has spiritual.[5]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. Of the air or wind; worked by air.[2][3]
  2. Of breathing: fistula spīritālis, the windpipe.[2][3]
  3. (Ecclesiastical Latin) Of the spirit, spiritual, immaterial.[2][3][6]
  4. (Medieval Latin) Symbolical, mystical, of the interpretation of sacred texts.[6]

Noun

  1. (Medieval Latin) A cleric (as spīrituālis).[4]

Word family

  • inspiritalis
  • spīritālitās
  • spīritāliter

References

  1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  5. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  6. ^ a b c Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill