Archaic KJV Word
Spirit
Modern equivalent: soul/inner being
What Was Lost
The elemental force. Ruach was the word for wind -- you could feel it hit your face, bend trees, and drive waves. When Genesis says 'the ruach of God moved over the waters,' the image is a hurricane-force divine wind, not a gentle invisible presence. The Spirit was wind and breath -- tangible, powerful, and felt in the body.
Closest Survivor in Modern English
spirit (still used but stripped of its wind/breath/force physicality)
Peak Usage (1611)
KJV Genesis 1:2 -- 'The Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters'; Romans 8:16 -- 'The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit'
Died still used but abstracted (~1700)
Hebrew ruach ('wind/breath/force') and Greek pneuma ('breath/wind') were concrete, physical-force words. English 'spirit' became an invisible, immaterial abstraction -- the opposite of the original dynamic energy.
What Replaced It
“ghost”
Spooky and disembodied; ruach was the storm-wind of God's presence
“attitude”
Psychological disposition; ruach was divine force that moved over primordial waters
“essence”
Philosophical abstraction; ruach was experienced as wind on the face and breath in the lungs