one of my treatment counselors informed us the latin root meaning of the word "spirit" means: to breathe or breath....so if we are breathing...we have spirit.
I looked up the dictionary definition of "spirit" and found 31 definitions. also found this to back up what that counselor said:
Origin:
1200–50; ME (n.) < L spīritus orig., a breathing, equiv. to spīri-, comb. form repr. spīrāre to breathe + -tus suffix of v. action