Etymograph

English

ghost

Ghost comes from Middle English gost ‘a spiritual being’, from Proto-Germanic *gaistaz ‘terror, fear’, and ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰéysd-.

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*ǵʰéysd-1reconstructed
  2. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*ǵʰéysdos1reconstructed
  3. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*gaistaz1‘terror’reconstructed
  4. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*gaist1‘ghost’reconstructed
  5. Old Englishc. 450–1150gāst1‘breath’
  6. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500gost1‘a spiritual being’
  7. Englishearliest quotation 1590ghost1

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, English ghost
  2. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1590, Edmund Spenser, Book I, Canto VII: “hen gins her grieued ghost thus to lament and…”.

Lineage

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*ǵʰéysd-Wiktionary, English ghostreconstructed
  2. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*ǵʰéysdosWiktionary, English ghostreconstructed
  3. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*gaistazWiktionary, English ghost‘terror’reconstructed
  4. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*gaistWiktionary, English ghost‘ghost’reconstructed
  5. Old Englishc. 450–1150gāstWiktionary, English ghost‘breath’
  6. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500gostWiktionary, English ghost‘a spiritual being’
  7. Englishearliest quotation 1590ghostWiktionary, English ghost. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1590, Edmund Spenser, Book I, Canto VII: “hen gins her grieued ghost thus to lament and…”

The story

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.

Full etymology on Wiktionary

Word family

English words that share an ancestor with ghost, grouped by the ancestor they share, most familiar first.

through Proto-West Germanic *gaist ‘ghost, spirit’

1 more relative in the full family tree

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Today it means

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

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “ghost”. By Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0, via kaikki.org (dump of Oct 3 2026); text adapted and restructured. Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word. License.

Etymograph / Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰéysd- / ghost