wraith

Etymology

First attested 1513, in a Middle Scots translation of the Aeneid. The word has no certain etymology. J. R. R. Tolkien favored a link with writhe. Also compared are Scots warth and Old Norse vǫrðr (“watcher, guardian”), whence Icelandic vörður (“guard”). See also wray/bewray, from Middle English wreien. Perhaps from wrath as a wraith is a vengeful spirit.

noun

1. A ghost or specter, especially a person's likeness seen just after their death.
   Like wraiths with the impediments of bodies they stumbled in the direction of Salthill faces. 2001, Joyce Carol Oates, Middle Age: A Romance, paperback edition, Fourth Estate, page 80