different between spirit vs characteristic

English

Etymology

From Middle English spirit, from Old French espirit (“spirit”), from Latin sp?ritus (“breath; spirit”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)peys- (“to blow, breathe”). Compare inspire, respire, transpire, all ultimately from Latin sp?r? (“I breathe, blow, respire”). Displaced native Middle English gast (“spirit”) (from Old English g?st (“spirit, ghost”)), whence modern English ghost. Doublet of sprite.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /?sp???t/
• (US) IPA^(key): /?spi??t/, /?sp???t/
• Rhymes: -???t
• Hyphenation: spir?it

Noun

spirit (countable and uncountable, plural spirits)

1. The soul of a person or other creature. What moves through experience into self-definition as souls purpose.
3. A supernatural being, often but not exclusively without physical form; ghost, fairy, angel.

   A wandering spirit haunts the island.

   • 1693, John Locke, Some Thoughts Concerning Education

     Whilst young, preserve his tender mind from all impressions and notions of spirits and goblins […] in the dark.
4. Enthusiasm.

5. The manner or style of something.
6. (usually in the plural) A volatile liquid, such as alcohol. The plural form spirits is a generic term for distilled alcoholic beverages.
7. Energy; ardour.
   • 1655, Thomas Fuller, The Church History of Britain

     "Write it then, quickly," replied Bede; and summoning all his spirits together, like the last blaze of a candle going out, he indited it, and expired.

8. One who is vivacious or lively; one who evinces great activity or peculiar characteristics of mind or temper.

   a ruling spirit; a schismatic spirit

   • 1697, John Dryden, Aeneid

     Such spirits as he desired to please, such would I choose for my judges.

9. Temper or disposition of mind; mental condition or disposition; intellectual or moral state; often in the plural.

   to be cheerful, or in good spirits; to be down-hearted, or in bad spirits

   • 1667, Robert South, Sermon VII

     God has […] made a spirit of building succeed a spirit of pulling down.

10. (obsolete) Air set in motion by breathing; breath; hence, sometimes, life itself.
11. (obsolete) A rough breathing; an aspirate, such as the letter h; also, a mark denoting aspiration.
    • 1640, Ben Jonson, The English Grammar

      Be it a letter or spirit, we have great use of it.

12. Intent; real meaning; opposed to the letter, or formal statement.

    the spirit of an enterprise, or of a document

13. (alchemy, obsolete) Any of the four substances: sulphur, sal ammoniac, quicksilver, and arsenic (or, according to some, orpiment).

    • the foure spirites and the bodyes seven

14. (dyeing) Stannic chloride.

Derived terms

Pages starting with “spirit”.

Translations

See also

• ghost
• soul

Verb

spirit (third-person singular simple present spirits, present participle spiriting, simple past and past participle spirited)

1. To carry off, especially in haste, secrecy, or mystery.
   • 1835, Nathaniel Parker Willis, Pencillings by the Way:

     I felt as if I had been spirited into some castle of felicity.

2. Sometimes followed by up: to animate with vigour; to excite; to encourage; to inspirit.

Derived terms

• spirit away
• spirit off

Anagrams

• Tripis, pitris

Indonesian

Etymology

From Dutch spirit, from English spirit, from Middle English spirit, from Old French espirit (“spirit”), from Latin sp?ritus (“breath; spirit”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)peys- (“to blow, breathe”). Doublet of spiritus.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [?spir?t??]
• Hyphenation: spi?rit

Noun

spirit (plural spirit-spirit, first-person possessive spiritku, second-person possessive spiritmu, third-person possessive spiritnya)

1. spirit:
   1. the soul of a person or other creature. What moves through experience into self-definition as souls purpose.

      Synonyms: arwah, atma, jiwa, hidup, kehidupan, nyawa, roh, sukma

   2. a supernatural being, often but not exclusively without physical form; ghost, fairy, angel.

      Synonyms: arwah, roh

   3. (figuratively) enthusiasm, energy; ardour.

      Synonyms: roh, semangat, spirit

Related terms

Further reading

• “spirit” in Kamus Besar Bahasa Indonesia (KBBI) Daring, Jakarta: Badan Pengembangan dan Pembinaan Bahasa, Kementerian Pendidikan dan Kebudayaan Republik Indonesia, 2016.

Romanian

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin spiritus. Compare also spiridu?.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?spirit/

Noun

spirit n (plural spirite)

1. spirit, ghost
2. essence, psyche
3. wit, genius
4. manner, style

Declension

Synonyms

• (spirit, ghost): duh

Related terms

• spiridu?

See also

• n?luc?, stafie, spectru, apari?ie, fantom?

Tok Pisin

Etymology

English spirit

Noun

spirit

1. spirit (physical form of God)

English

Etymology

From Ancient Greek ??????????????? (kharakt?ristikós), from ??????????? (kharakt?ríz?, “to designate by a characteristic mark”), from ???????? (kharakt?r, “a mark, character”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?kæ??kt????st?k/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /?k???kt????st?k/
• Rhymes: -?st?k
• Hyphenation: char?ac?te?ris?tic

Adjective

characteristic (comparative more characteristic, superlative most characteristic)

1. Being a distinguishing feature of a person or thing.

Synonyms

• distinctive
• exclusive
• idiosyncratic
• indicative
• representative
• signature
• specific
• typical

Antonyms

• uncharacteristic
• untypical

Derived terms

• characteristic function
• characteristicness

Translations

Noun

characteristic (plural characteristics)

1. A distinguishing feature of a person or thing.
2. (mathematics) The integer part of a logarithm.
   • 1830, Solomon Pearson Miles, Thomas Sherwin, Mathematical Tables: Comprising Logarithms of Numbers, […] , page 69,

     It is evident, moreover, that as the logarithms of numbers, which are tenfold, the one of the other, do not differ except in their characteristics, it is sufficient that the tables contain the fractional parts only of the logarithms.

   • 1911, F. T. Swanwick, Elementary Trigonometry, Cambridge University Press, page 60,

     As the sine and cosine are always proper fractions their logarithms are negative, i.e. have negative characteristics. When we are given an angle, it is impossible to say, from inspection of the angle, what the characteristic of the logarithm of its sine, cosine or tangent may be; so the characteristics have to be printed with the mantissae.

   • 1961, Principles and Applications of Mathematics for Communications-Electronics, [U.S.] Department of the Army, page 69,

     Similarly, the characteristic for .003 is ?3, and the characteristic for .0003 is ?4.

3. (nautical) The distinguishing features of a navigational light on a lighthouse etc by which it can be identified (colour, pattern of flashes etc.).
4. (algebra, field theory, ring theory) For a given field or ring, a natural number that is either the smallest positive number n such that n instances of the multiplicative identity (1) summed together yield the additive identity (0) or, if no such number exists, the number 0.
   • 1962 [John Wiley & Sons], Nathan Jacobson, Lie Algebras, 1979, Dover, page 289,

     In this chapter we study the problem of classifying the finite-dimensional simple Lie algebras over an arbitrary field of characteristic 0.

   • 1992, Simeon Ivanov (translator), P. M. Gudivok, E. Ya. Pogorilyak, On Modular Representations of Finite Groups over Integral Domains, Simeon Ivanov (editor), Galois Theory, Rings, Algebraic Groups and Their Applications, American Mathematical Society, page 87,

     Let R be a Noetherian factorial ring of characteristic p which is not a field.

   • 1993, S. Warner, Topological Rings, Elsevier (North-Holland), page 424,

     Traditionally, a complete, discretely valued field of characteristic zero, the maximal ideal of whose valuation ring is generated by the prime number p, has been called a p-adic field. In our terminology, the valuation ring of a p-adic field is a Cohen ring of characteristic zero whose residue field has characteristic p, and consequently a p-adic field is simply the quotient field of such a Cohen ring.

Synonyms

• (distinguishing feature of a person or thing): attribute, hallmark, idiosyncrasy, mannerism, quality, tendency, trademark, trait
• See also Thesaurus:characteristic

Coordinate terms

• (part of a logarithm): mantissa

Derived terms

• defining characteristic

Related terms

• characteristically

Translations

See also

• mantissa

Further reading

• characteristic in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• characteristic in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

Interlingua

Adjective

characteristic (not comparable)

1. characteristic

Related terms

• characteristica