The meaning "supernatural immaterial creature; angel, demon; an apparition, invisible corporeal being of an airy nature" is attested from mid-14c. The word is attested by late 14c. as "ghost, disembodied soul of a person" (compareghost(n.)).Spirit-rapping, colloquial forspiritualismin the su...
The word was later used of gas masks in World War I. As "machine to provide artificial respiration" from 1929. re- word-forming element meaning "back, back from, back to the original place;" also "again, anew, once more," also conveying the notion of "undoing" or "backward," etc...