Etymology
1. O.E.
gast "soul, spirit, life, breath," from P.Gmc.
*ghoizdoz (cf. O.S.
gest, O.Fris.
jest, M.Du.
gheest, Ger.
Geist "spirit, ghost"), from PIE base
*ghois- "to be excited, frightened" (cf. Skt.
hedah "wrath;" Avestan
zaesha- "horrible, frightful;" Goth.
usgaisjan, O.E.
gæstan "to frighten"). This was the usual W.Gmc. word for "supernatural being," and the primary sense seems to have been connected to the idea of "to wound, tear, pull to pieces." The surviving O.E. senses, however, are in Christian writing, where it is used to render L.
spiritus, a sense preserved in
Holy Ghost. Modern sense of "disembodied spirit of a dead person" is attested from c.1385 and returns the word toward its ancient sense. Most IE words for "soul, spirit" also double with ref. to supernatural spirits. Many have a base sense of "appearance" (e.g. Gk.
phantasma; Fr.
spectre; Pol.
widmo, from O.C.S.
videti "to see;" O.E.
scin, O.H.G.
giskin, originally "appearance, apparition," related to O.E.
scinan, O.H.G.
skinan "to shine"). Other concepts are in Fr.
revenant, lit. "returning" (from the other world), O.N.
aptr-ganga, lit. "back-comer." Bret.
bugelnoz is lit. "night-child." L.
manes, lit. "the good ones," is a euphemism. The
gh- spelling appeared c.1425 in Caxton, influenced by Flem. and M.Du.
gheest, but was rare in Eng. before c.1550. Sense of "slight suggestion" (in
ghost image, ghost of a chance, etc.) is first recorded 1613; that in
ghost writing is from 1884, but that term is not found until 1927.
Ghost town is from 1931.
Ghost in the machine was Gilbert Ryle's term (1949) for "the mind viewed as separate from the body."
2. The noun is derived from Middle English gost, from Old English gāst, gǣst (“breath, spirit, soul, ghost”) (compare modern English Holy Ghost), from Proto-West Germanic *gaist, from Proto-Germanic *gaistaz, from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰéysdos, from *ǵʰéysd- (“anger, agitation”).
3. The h in the spelling appears in the Prologue to William Caxton’s Royal Book, printed in 1484, in a reference to the “Holy Ghoost”. It was likely influenced by Middle Dutch gheest, a common variant of geest. Both Caxton and his assistant Wynkyn de Worde had connections to the Low Countries. Doublet of geist.
4. The adjective and verb are derived from the noun. The verb gained prominence in the 2010s.
5. cognates
6. * Danish gast (“ghost”), gejst (“enthusiasm”)
7. * Dutch geest (“ghost, spirit”)
8. * German Geist (“ghost, spirit”)
9. * Luxembourgish Geescht (“ghost, spirit, spectre, phantom”)
10. * Saterland Frisian Gäist, Jeest (“ghost, spirit”)
11. * Scots gaist, ghaist (“ghost”)
12. * Swedish gast (“ghost”)
13. * Vilamovian gȧjst (“ghost, spirit”)
14. * West Frisian geast (“ghost, spirit”)
15. * Yiddish גײַסט (gayst, “ghost, spirit”)
16. * Yola gaast (“ghost”) See: English '
Holy Ghost', Scots '
gaist'.
Verbs referencing "ghost"
German, old spelling
ghosten, French
ghoster, Spanish
gostear, Swedish
spöka, Finnish with old forms
ghostata.