the.com/spiritual

Religion's cool cousin who still believes in magic but skipped the homework.

means Concerned with the soul, inner life, or sacred matters, but typically outside the structure of organized religion.

from From Latin spiritualis, from spiritus meaning 'breath, breathing, spirit' — itself from spirare, 'to breathe.' The same root gives us 'respire' and 'inspire,' so at bottom 'spiritual' just means having to do with the breath of life, the animating thing that isn't the body. Its drift into meaning 'not religious but still believing in something' is a much more modern development, as people began separating the breath from the institution built around it.

census spike
fastest growing US belief category since 1990s
common pairing
often followed by but not religious
overlap
crystals, yoga, and vague universe energy count
origin
latin spiritus just meant breath
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