Nefesh

Soul in the sense of throat, breath, whole life — not a spirit loose from the body.

Nefesh is the whole living person: in Genesis 2 the man does not receive a soul, he becomes one. The word can even mean throat and appetite, which is why “my soul thirsts” is literal before it is poetic. The idea of an immortal soul separate from the body is Greek and enters the tradition later — reading nefesh through that lens changes the sense of dozens of psalms.