Hebrew (OT), ruah, Greek (NT), pneuma.
From Vine’s Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words: Primarily denotes the wind (akin to pneo, to breathe, blow); also breath; then, especially the spirit, which, like the wind, is invisible, immaterial and powerful.
7Then the LORD God formed man of dust
from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man
became a living being [soul, nephesh]. (Genesis 2:7)
of all
that was on the dry land, all in whose nostrils was the breath of the spirit
of life, died. (Genesis 7:22)
19For the fate of the sons of men and the
fate of beasts is the same. As one dies so dies the other; indeed, they all
have the same breath and there is no advantage for man over beast.
(Ecclesiastes 3:19)
55And her spirit returned, and she got up
immediately; and He gave orders for something to be given her to eat (Luke
8:55)
59They went on stoning Stephen as he
called on the Lord and said, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit!" (Acts
7:59)
5I have decided to deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of his flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus. (1 Corinthians 5:5)
The language of Heb. 4:12 suggests the extreme difficulty of distinguishing between the soul and the spirit, alike in their nature and in their activities. Generally speaking the spirit is the higher, the soul the lower element. The spirit may be recognized as the life principle bestowed on man by God, the soul as the resulting life constituted in the individual, the body being the material organism animated by soul and spirit.
Body and soul are the constituents of the man according to Mt 6:25; 10:28; Lk 12:20; Acts 20:10; body and spirit according to Lk 8:55; 1 Cor 5:3; 7:34; Jas 2:26. In Mt 26:38 the emotions are associated with the soul, in John 13:21 with the spirit; cp also Ps. 42:11 with 1 kings 21:5. In Ps. 35:9 the soul rejoices in God, in Luke 1:47 the spirit.
Apparently, then, the relationships may be thus summed up, soma, body, and pneuma, spirit, may be separated, pneuma and psuche, soul, can only be distinguished’ (Cremer).”
Lk 11:24, Lk 8:27, Mk 1:23, 7:25, Mt 12:43
Where did they come from? Jude 6, Ge 6:1-4, Re 12:4