ghost

Meanings

1. 1
   verb

   to leave a gathering without saying goodbye

   They ghosted an hour ago.

2. 2
   noun

   a mental representation of a haunting experience

   The ghost of my experience in the war followed me.

3. 3
   noun

   a hint of a particular quality

   There was a ghost of happiness in the film.

4. 4
   noun

   the visible disembodied soul of a dead person

   The ghost of Banquo appeared during the feast.

5. 5
   noun

   a writer who gives the credit of authorship to someone else

   The celebrity's autobiography was, in fact, written by a ghost.

6. 6
   verb

   write for someone else

   How many books have you ghosted so far?

7. 7
   verb

   move like a ghost

   The masked men ghosted across the moonlit yard

8. 8
   noun

   A disembodied soul; a soul or spirit of a deceased person; a spirit appearing after death.

   Everyone believed that the ghost of an old lady haunted the crypt.

Etymology

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…