Spirit
The English word spirit, from Latin spiritus "breath", has many different meanings and connotations, most of them relating to a non-corporeal substance contrasted with the material body. It can also refer to a "subtle" as opposed to "gross" material substance, as in the famous last paragraph of Sir Isaac Newton's Principia Mathematica.
The word spirit is often used metaphysically to refer to the consciousness or personality. The notions of a person's spirit and soul often also overlap, as both contrast with body and both are believed to survive bodily death in some religions, and "spirit" can also have the sense of "ghost", i.e. a manifestation of the spirit of a deceased person.
The term may also refer to any incorporeal or immaterial being, such as demons or deities. In the Bible, "the Spirit" (with a capital "S"), specifically denotes the Holy Spirit.
Etymology
The English word spirit comes from the Latin spiritus, meaning "breath", but also "spirit, soul, courage, vigor", ultimately from a Proto-Indo-European *(s)peis. It is distinguished from Latin anima, "soul" (which nonetheless also derives from an Indo-European root meaning "to breathe", earliest form *h2enh1- ). In Greek, this distinction exists between pneuma (πνεῦμα), "breath, motile air, spirit," and psykhē (ψυχή), "soul" (even though the latter term, ψῡχή = psykhē/psūkhē, is also from an Indo-European root meaning "to breathe": *bhes-, zero grade *bhs- devoicing in proto-Greek to *phs-, resulting in historical-period Greek ps- in psūkhein, "to breathe", whence psūkhē, "spirit", "soul").
Spirits (band)
Spirits is a male/female dance music duo from England who scored two entries on the Hot Dance Music/Club Play chart in 1995. Members are Osmond Wright and Beverly Thomas. Their debut single "Don't Bring Me Down" spent two weeks at number one on the dance chart and it was followed by "Spirit Inside", which hit number twelve.
See also
References
Spirits (Misato Watanabe album)
Album recorded by female Japanese pop artist Watanabe Misato. It was released on July 12, 1996 by Sony Music Entertainment.
Track listing
External links
Dagon
Dagon (Hebrew: דגון', Tib. Dāḡôn) or Dagan (Ugaritic: Dgn, Dagnu, or Daganu; Akkadian: Dagana) was originally an East Semitic Mesopotamian (Akkadian, Assyrian, Babylonian) fertility god who evolved into a major Northwest Semitic god, reportedly of grain (as symbol of fertility) and fish and/or fishing (as symbol of multiplying). He was worshipped by the early Amorites and by the inhabitants of the cities of Ebla (modern Tell Mardikh, Syria) and Ugarit (modern Ras Shamra, Syria). He was also a major member, or perhaps head, of the pantheon of the Philistines.
Name
In Ugaritic, the root dgn also means grain: in Hebrew דגן dāgān, Samaritan dīgan, is an archaic word for grain.
The Phoenician author Sanchuniathon also says Dagon means siton, that being the Greek word for grain. Sanchuniathon further explains: "And Dagon, after he discovered grain and the plough, was called Zeus Arotrios." The word arotrios means "ploughman", "pertaining to agriculture" (confer ἄροτρον "plow").
It is perhaps related to the Middle Hebrew and Jewish Aramaic word dgnʾ 'be cut open' or to Arabic dagn (دجن) 'rain-(cloud)'.
Fomalhaut b
Fomalhaut b or Dagon is a confirmed, directly imaged extrasolar object and candidate planet orbiting the A-type main-sequence star Fomalhaut, approximately 25 light-years away in the constellation of Piscis Austrinus. The object was initially announced in 2008 and confirmed as real in 2012 from images taken with the Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) on the Hubble Space Telescope and, according to calculations reported in January 2013, has a 1,700-year, highly elliptical orbit. It has a periastron of 7.4 billion km (~50 AU) and an apastron of about 44 billion km (~300 AU). As of May 25, 2013 it is 110 AU from its parent star.
The planet was one of those selected by the International Astronomical Union as part of their public process for giving proper names to exoplanets. The process involved public nomination and voting for the new name. In December 2015, the IAU announced the winning name was Dagon. The name Dagon was proposed by Dr. Todd Vaccaro and forwarded by the St. Cloud State University Planetarium to the IAU for consideration.
Nightrider (DC Comics)
Nightrider (Dagon) is a fictional vampire superhero from the DC Comics universe. He is a member of the Team Titans, a rebel group seeking to overthrow Lord Chaos, the dictator of an alternate Earth ten years into the future.
Fictional character biography
David was an ordinary mortal boy growing up in London. When he was ten, he was hit by a truck. Lord Chaos took a special interest in him, making him a test subject.
At fourteen, he was the subject of an experiment in which he was infused with DNA drawn from the bones of Dracula. This turned him into a blood-hungering monster he dubbed "Dagon", because he felt as if David, the person he used to be, was dead. During the experiment, a demon attacked the research team; Dagon joined it and singled out the chief researcher for special attention. The only survivor was Charlie Watkins, who would later become the hero Killowat.
Dagon joined the Team Titans to get revenge on Lord Chaos, adopting the name Nightrider. They taught him how to control his hunger and assigned him to a team.
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