"Holy Spirit" or "Holy Ghost"

"Holy Spirit" or "Holy Ghost"

Holy Ghost was the common name for the Holy Spirit in English prior to the 20th century. It is the name used in the Book of Common Prayer and the King James Version of the Bible, and is still used by those who prefer more traditional language, or whose religious vocabulary is largely derived from the King James Version. The term is still retained in the traditional-language rites of the Anglican Church. The original meaning of the English word ghost paralleled the words spirit or soul; only later did the former word come to acquire the specific sense of "disembodied spirit of the dead" and the associated pejorative connotations.

In 1901 the American Standard Version of the Bible translated the name as Holy Spirit, as had the English Revised Version of 1881-1885 upon which it was based. Almost all modern English translations have followed suit. Some languages still use a word that overlaps both English words, such as the German Geist.

In Norfolk, a county in the United Kingdom, Religious Education teachers are told to avoid using "Holy Ghost" as it allegedly "suggests a trivial and spooky element to the third part in the Trinity".^[9]

^{Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holy_Spirit}