Give Up the Ghost

In 16th- and 17th-century English, "ghost" simply meant the soul or spirit, not a spooky apparition, so to "give up the ghost" meant releasing your spirit at the moment of death. The phrase appears repeatedly in the King James Bible of 1611, including in the Gospel of Mark's account of the crucifixion: "And Jesus cried with a loud voice, and gave up the ghost." It's a direct English rendering of the original Greek phrase for the moment life leaves the body. The wry modern extension, applying it to a car engine or an old washing machine finally packing in, keeps the same core image of something breathing its last.