ghost

Etymology

From Middle English gost, from Old English gāst, which was the word for "spirit" as well as "ghost" (the original sense survives in Modern English Holy Ghost from Old English Hāliġ Gāst). Further from Proto-West Germanic *gaist, from Proto-Germanic *gaistaz, from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰéysdos, derived from *ǵʰéysd- (“anger, agitation”). Cognate with Scots ghaist (“ghost”), Saterland Frisian Gäist (“spirit”), West Frisian geast (“spirit”), Dutch geest (“spirit, mind, ghost”), German Geist (“spirit, mind, intellect”), Swedish gast (“ghost”). Wider cognates include Sanskrit हेड (héḍa, “anger, hatred”), Persian زشت (zešt, “ugly, hateful, disgusting”). 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', likely introduced by Caxton's assistant, Wynkyn de Worde, as a result of Flemish influence, where it was spelled 'gheest'.

noun

1. (uncommon or dated) The spirit; the human soul.
   Enlightening the eyes and a taste for hope, emotions are felt from an inward ghost. 2013, Kenneth Palmer, Just Thoughts: Looking at Man's Whole Self, page 20
   If I thought that “I” referred to my inner ghost, I wouldn't be worried because a bullet can't hurt a ghost, and equally there would be no point in your shooting. 2014, Neville Moray, Science, Cells and Souls: An Introduction to Human Nature
   It also required four years of finding your inner ghost and becoming one with it. The inner ghost is within every person who is still alive. 2017, Anastasia Burton, You and I, in a Thousand Moons
2. The disembodied soul; the soul or spirit of a deceased person; a spirit appearing after death.
   Everyone believed that the ghost of an old lady haunted the crypt.
   I thought that I had died in sleep/And was a blessed ghost 1798, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, The Rime of the Ancyent Marinere
3. Any faint shadowy semblance; an unsubstantial image.
   .
   Earless ghost swift moths become “invisible” to echolocating bats by forming mating clusters close (less than half a meter) above vegetation and effectively blending into the clutter of echoes that the bat receives from the leaves and stems around them. 2013 May-June, William E. Conner, “An Acoustic Arms Race”, in American Scientist, volume 101, number 3, archived from the original on 2013-07-17, pages 206–7
   […] She barely answers his questions. She’s a ghost of herself. And then Hot Pie gives us the key to Arya’s whole thing this season so far: She didn’t know that Jon had defeated the Boltons. July 23, 2017, Brandon Nowalk, “The great game begins with a bang on Game Of Thrones (newbies)”, in The Onion AV Club
   not a ghost of a chance
   the ghost of an idea
4. A false image formed in a telescope, camera, or other optical device by reflection from the surfaces of one or more lenses.
5. An unwanted image similar to and overlapping or adjacent to the main one on a television screen, caused by the transmitted image being received both directly and via reflection.
   There was less flicker, jitter was nonexistent, and the screen pattern had been rendered far more viewworthy, with ghosts being virtually suppressed. 2007, Albert Abramson, The History of Television, 1942 to 2000, page 60
6. A ghostwriter.
7. A nonexistent person invented to obtain some (typically fraudulent) benefit.
   Some health systems are plagued by "ghost" and "absent" workers. Ghost workers are nonexistent, listed in the payroll, and paid, a clear sign of corruption. 2004, Joint Learning Initiative, Global Equity Initiative, Human Resources for Health: Overcoming the Crisis, page 76
   1,500 secondary schools in Jiangxi found 125 cases of illegally collected Ghosts and Absentees fees worth $2 million. 2008, The Asia-Pacific Human Development Report, page 63
   Before filling out this form, please visit the Pennsic Pre-Registration Page to create your account and enter your campers and ghosts [nonexistent campers one pays for to legitimately increase the size of one's allotted camping space]. 2023, Barony of Ponte Alto, Society for Creative Anachronism, Ponte Alto Pennsic Encampment 2023 - Barony Registration
8. A dead person whose identity is stolen by another. See ghosting.
9. (Internet) An unresponsive user on IRC, resulting from the user's client disconnecting without notifying the server.
   This will let you open a query with NickServ again so you can remove your “ghost” from the server: […] 2004, Paul Mutton, IRC Hacks: 100 Industrial-Strength Tips & Tools, page 31
10. (computing) An image of a file or hard disk.
11. (theater) An understudy.
12. (espionage) A covert (and deniable) agent.
13. The faint image that remains after an attempt to remove graffiti.
    Regardless of GRM used, graffiti ghosts persist. Protect cladding with surface coating or replace with graffiti resistant paint or laminate. 1992, Maurice J. Whitford, Getting Rid of Graffiti, page 45
14. (video games) An opponent in a racing game that follows a previously recorded route, allowing players to compete against previous best times.
    This is also the case for some racing games (Super Mario Kart is a good example) that allow you to compete against your ghosts, which are precise recordings of your performance. 2012, Keith Burgun, Game Design Theory: A New Philosophy for Understanding Games
15. Someone whose identity cannot be established because there are no records of him/her.
16. (quantum mechanics) An unphysical state in a gauge theory.
    The proof is well known, and independent of the metric, but to make certain we prove it here also for the case when the state vector system of an operator contains multipole ghosts. 1966, Kàzmèr L. Nagy, State Vector Spaces with Indefinite Metric in Quantum Field Theory, page 14
    Soon after, the proof of the No-Ghost Theorem, establishing that the DRM has no ghosts if d ≤ 26, was achieved independently by Brower (1972) and by Goddard and Thorn (1972). 2019, Radin Dardashti, Richard Dawid, Karim Thébault, Why Trust a Theory?, page 180
17. (attributive, linguistics, computing) A formerly nonexistent character that was at some point mistakenly encoded into a character set standard, which might have since become used opportunistically for some genuine purpose.
    彁 is a ghost character from the Japanese JIS X 0208 character set.
18. (countable) Clipping of ghost pepper.
    Spicy or mild, lovely bells or scary ghosts, peppers belong in your garden. Not only are they delicious, they add a gorgeous pop of color to vegetable gardens. When starting pepper seeds, consider using a heat mat. 2018-10-02, Julie Thompson-Adolf, Starting & Saving Seeds: Grow the Perfect Vegetables, Fruits, Herbs, and Flowers for Your Garden, Cool Springs Press, page 68
    Fresh chili has a glossy smooth skin like a bell pepper...unless you're in scorching territory, with the likes of Ghosts or Reapers (their name should give the game away), where the skin looks [wrinkled]. 2022-07-05, Alice Zaslavsky, In Praise of Veg: The Ultimate Cookbook for Vegetable Lovers, Appetite by Random House
19. (uncountable) A game in which players take turns to add a letter to a possible word, trying not to complete a word.
20. (attributive, in names of species) White or pale.
    ghost slug
    ghostflower
21. (attributive, in names of species) Transparent or translucent.
    ghost ant
    ghost catfish
22. (attributive) Abandoned.
    ghost town
    ghost ship
23. (attributive) Remnant; the remains of a(n).
    ghost cell
    ghost crater
    ghost image
24. (attributive) Perceived or listed but not real.
    ghost cellphone vibration
    ghost pain
    ghost island
    ghost voter
25. (attributive) Of cryptid, supernatural or extraterrestrial nature.
    ghost rocket
    ghost deer
26. (attributive) Substitute.
    ghost writer
    ghost singer

verb

1. (obsolete, transitive) To haunt; to appear to in the form of an apparition.
2. (obsolete) To die; to expire.
3. (literary) To imbue with a ghost-like hue or effect.
4. (transitive, intransitive) To ghostwrite.
   The current issue carries an extraordinary 26,000-word piece by Andrew O'Hagan on his failed attempt to ghost the WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange's memoir, which was trending on Twitter before copies even hit the news-stands. 2014-03-09, Elizabeth Day, “Is the LRB the best magazine in the world?”, in The Observer
5. (nautical) To sail seemingly without wind.
   They move without any visible sign of movement, like a wakeless ship ghosting over the water. 2016, Nathanael Johnson, Unseen City, page 192
6. (computing) To copy a file or hard drive image.
7. (graphical user interface) To gray out (a visual item) to indicate that it is unavailable.
   Whenever a menu or menu item is inappropriate or unavailable for selection, it should be ghosted. Never allow the user to select something that does nothing in response. 1991, Amiga User Interface Style Guide, page 76
8. (Internet, transitive) To forcibly disconnect an IRC user who is using one's reserved nickname.
   I'm so untechnical that I once ghosted a registered IRC nick and then tried to identify myself to NickServ with the valid password before actually changing my nick to the aforementioned moniker. 2001, Luke, “to leave (vb.): Hurg [OT]”, in alt.games.lucas-arts.monkey-island (Usenet)
9. (intransitive) To appear or move without warning, quickly and quietly; to slip.
   Arsenal came into the match under severe pressure and nerves were palpable early on as Pratley was brilliantly denied by Szczesny after ghosting in front of Kieran Gibbs September 24, 2011, David Ornstein, “Arsenal 3 - 0 Bolton”, in BBC Sport
   At the flank of the main stage, I took root for an hour, until a female form ghosted in front of me that I recognised from university two years before. 2011, Mark Harnden, In the Dark Backyard, page 59
   He ghosted through the door. It clanged a few seconds later as his pursuer pounded on it. 2012, Ian Tregillis, Bitter Seeds
10. (transitive) To transfer (a prisoner) to another prison without the prior knowledge of other inmates.
    His power base, however, is undermined by him being constantly, “ghosted”, or moved from prison to prison. 2020, Jamie Bennett, Victoria Knight, Prisoners on Prison Films, page 26
11. (slang) To kill.
    My recommendation: Do me. Don't take the chance that I'll get shiv-happy on your wannabe ass. Ghost me, Riddick. Would if I were you. Though I notice he tried to ghost my ass. When he shot up that stranger instead. 2000, Jim Wheat, Ken Wheat, David Twohy, Pitch Black (film)
    He just ghosted two guys, and I never even saw him. Plan was to clean the bank, ghost the mercs, break wide through the tunnel. 2004, Jim Wheat, Ken Wheat, David Twohy, The Chronicles of Riddick (film)
    This may come as a shock to you, Johns, but I didn't ghost your son. He seemed set on killin' himself. Diaz was gonna take the nodes for himself and ghost me. He was gonna leave you out here alone. 2013, Jim Wheat, Ken Wheat, David Twohy, Riddick (film)
    RONALD:”They tried to ghost your girl Isabel right here”. WES CHANDLER(played by Ron Perlman):”Tried to ‘ghost’ her?” RONALD:”Merk. 86. Put her down in the dirt. You feel me?” 2017-09-28, Josh Corbin, 37:03 from the start, in Start Up, season 2, episode 6, spoken by Ronald Dacey (Edi Gathegi)
12. (slang, social media) To perform an act of ghosting: to break up with someone without warning or explanation; to ignore someone, especially on social media.
    I’ve recently been trying out Tinder, and while I match with people and even chat with them everything seems to be going well, but whenever I bring up meeting IRL, they are quick to ghost me. 2015-10-15, “Why is it so hard to go from chatting on Tinder to meeting up in real life?”, in The Guardian
    By 6 p.m., I had a list of restaurants to try from Hamish, a chef who couldn’t meet, a follow-up from Adam (“I’ve never seen a room at the Ace....”), and an offer from Agoraphobic Paul to come over and “have a joint and a cuddle.” I’d confirmed a walking tour of Greenwich from Max, who ghosted. 2016-03-21, Allison P. Davies, “What I Learned Tindering My Way Across Europe”, in Travel + Leisure, archived from the original on 2018-01-06
    Tinder knows me so well. It knows the real, inglorious version of me who copy-pasted the same joke to match 567, 568, and 569; who exchanged compulsively with 16 different people simultaneously one New Year’s Day, and then ghosted 16 of them. 2017-09-26, Judith Duportail, “I asked Tinder for my data. It sent me 800 pages of my deepest, darkest secrets”, in The Guardian
    He had texted, called, and emailed a bunch since then. I hadn't meant to ghost, but it was just easier not to deal with it. 2018, Ling Ma, chapter 17, in Severance
13. (film) To provide the speaking or singing voice for another actor, who is lip-syncing.
    Here's how it went: Larry Parks as elderly Al Jolson was watching Larry Parks playing young Al Jolson in the first movie — in other words, Parks ghosting for Parks. At the same time, Jolson himself was ghosting the voices for both of them. 1955, Saturday Review (volume 38, part 2, page 27)
    One of the few performers to triumph over ghosting was Ava Gardner in Freed's Show Boat (1951). Not only does she lip-synch with breathtaking accuracy, her performance gives the cotton-candy production its only underpinning of realism. 1999, The Golden Age of Musicals, page 50