ghost

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   The spirit of a dead person that some believe can appear to the living.

   The children were sure a ghost was haunting the old house.

2. 2
   verb

   To suddenly stop all contact with someone, especially in a relationship.

   They went on two dates and then he ghosted her completely.

3. 3
   noun

   A writer who writes a book or article that is credited to someone else.

   The star's memoir was actually written by a ghost.

4. 4
   verb

   To write a book or article for someone else, who is named as the author.

   She ghosted three best-selling autobiographies last year.

Appears in

Simplified etymology

Ghost comes from Old English gāst, meaning a person's spirit or soul. This older sense survives in give up the ghost, meaning “to die,” from the idea of the soul as the source of life.

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”). 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. The adjectiv…

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External links

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• Cambridge Dictionary
• Wiktionary