Wraithlike comes from wraith + -like. Wraith is of obscure origin, first attested in 16th-century Scots, possibly related to Old Norse vǫrðr ('guardian') or to writhe. In current use it is an adjective meaning "resembling a wraith; pale, thin, and ghostly". That sense is explained by the older material without requiring a speculative semantic step: the inherited or borrowed base supplies the field of meaning, while the English formation fixes its modern role. The surface form is compositional: its joined elements remain visible in the modern word. The uncertainty belongs to the etymology itself and should be kept: the older ancestry is not presented as more secure than it is. Related English forms include wraith. The safest dictionary treatment is to keep the secure forms and the uncertainty together, since the doubtful step is part of the word's history rather than a gap to fill by guesswork.