===, such as the [[Latin]] ''[[spiritus]]'' and the [[Greek languageGreek]] ''[[pneuma]]'', which by [[analogy]] became extended to mean the soul. In the [[Bible]], [[God]] is depicted as animating [[Adam (Bible)Adam]] with a breath.
In many traditional accounts, ghosts were often thought to be deceased people looking for [[vengeance]], or imprisoned on earth for bad things they did during life. The appearance of a ghost has often been regarded as an omen or portent of death. Seeing one's own ghostly double or [[Doppelgänger"fetch"]] is a related omen of death.Christina Hole (1950) ''Haunted England'': 13-27
A [[White Lady (ghost)White Lady]] were purported to appear in many rural areas, and supposed to have died tragically or suffered trauma in life. White Lady legends are found around the world. Common to many of them is the theme of losing or being betrayed by a husband or fiancé. TheCommon attributes===Another widespread belief concerning ghosts is that they were composed of a misty, airy, or subtle material. [[AnthropologyAnthropologists]] speculate that this may also stem from early beliefs that ghosts were the person within the person, most noticeable in ancient cultures as a person's breath, which upon exhaling in colder climates appears visibly as a white mist.Encyclopedia of Occultism & Parapsychology edited by J. Gordon Melton Gale Research, ISBN 0-8103-5487-X This belief may have also fostered the metaphorical meaning of "breath" in certain languagesy are often associated with an individual family line, as a harbinger of death. When one of these ghosts is seen it indicates that someone in the family is going to die, similar to a [[banshee]].
Legends of [[ghost ship]]s have existed since the 18th century; most notable of these is the ''[[Flying Dutchman]]''. This theme has been used in literature in ''[[The Rime of the Ancient Mariner]]'' by Coleridge.