Other forms: ghosts, ghosting, ghosted
A ghost is the spirit of a dead person appearing to the living. See a ghost, a ghost story, haunted by a ghost.
It is one of the most widespread beliefs there is, and the word once meant simply spirit or breath — which is why the Holy Ghost is called that. To ghost somebody now means to stop replying to them without explanation. A ghostwriter writes a book published under somebody else's name. Note give up the ghost, meaning to die or to break down finally.
1nounghostThe spirit of a dead person appearing to the living.
“The children said they saw a ghost in the old house.”
2verbstopTo stop replying to somebody without explanation.
“After three dates, he ghosted her and never replied to her texts.”
Too few real examples of this word to estimate which sense is commonest.
ghost is a spirit.
Old English gast meant breath, spirit or soul, and the Holy Ghost preserves that older sense. German Geist is the same word, which is why it means mind and spirit rather than a haunting.
Proto-Indo-European
*ǵʰéysd-
Proto-Indo-European
*ǵʰéysdos
Proto-Germanic
*gaistaz
Proto-West Germanic
*gaist
Old English
gāst
Middle English
gost
English, today
ghost
Built from
The 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. a doublet of geist. The and are derived from the noun. The verb gained prominence in the 2010s.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA