What is the origin of the phrase Give up the ghost?
Because English is a hybrid language, we often have two words for the same thing, that come from different language backgrounds. Ghost is from the Anglo-Saxon word (gost) for what the Romans called Spiritus. In the Bible, when Jesus was on the cross, His last words were “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.” When he had said this, he breathed his last.” (New International Version) The King James Version of 1611, however, gave it the contemporary wording “… and having said thus, he gave up the ghost.” That is where the phrase comes from, as do many phrases in English, because of the immense influence of the King James Version of the Bible on English speakers.
