haunt

en-verb

haunt (third-person singular simple present haunts, present participle haunting, simple past and past participle haunted)

haunts (present singular third-person)
haunting (participle present)
haunted (participle past)
haunted (past)

From Middle English haunten (“to reside, inhabit, use, employ”), from Old French hanter (“to inhabit, frequent, resort to”), from Old Northern French hanter (“to go back home, frequent”), from Old Norse heimta (“to bring home, fetch”) or/and from Old English hāmettan (“to bring home; house; cohabit with”); both from Proto-Germanic *haimatjaną (“to house, bring home”), from Proto-Germanic *haimaz (“village, home”), from Proto-Indo-European *ḱóymos (“village”).
Cognate with Old English hǣman (“to cohabit, lie with, marry”); related to Old English hām (“home, village”), Old French hantin (“a stay, a place frequented by”) from the same Germanic source. Another descendant from the French is Dutch hanteren, whence German hantieren, Swedish hantera, Danish håndtere. More at home.

cog

A couple of ghosts haunt the old, burnt-down house.

You wrong me Sir,thus ſtill to haunt my houſe.

c. 1597 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merry Wiues of Windsor”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene iv], page 52, column 1:

Foul spirits haunt my resting place.

1600, [Torquato Tasso], “(please specify |book=1 to 20)”, in Edward Fairefax [i.e., Edward Fairfax], transl., Godfrey of Bulloigne, or The Recouerie of Ierusalem. […], London: […] Ar[nold] Hatfield, for I[saac] Iaggard and M[atthew] Lownes, →OCLC:

those cares that haunt the court and town

1713, Jonathan Swift, Imitation of Horace, Book I. Ep. VII:

(transitive) To inhabit or to visit frequently (most often used in reference to ghosts).

[…]haunte thi silf to pite [or pitee].

c. 1382–1395, John Wycliffe [et al.], edited by Josiah Forshall and Frederic Madden, The Holy Bible, […], volume I (in Middle English), Oxford: At the University Press, published 1850, →OCLC, I. Timothy 4:7, columns 1, 2:

(transitive, UK dialectal, Northern England, Scotland) To accustom; habituate; make accustomed to.

Leave honest pleasure, and haunt no good pastime.

a. 1569 (date written), Roger Ascham, edited by Margaret Ascham, The Scholemaster: Or Plaine and Perfite Way of Teaching Children, to Vnderstand, Write, and Speake, the Latin Tong, […], London: […] John Daye, […], published 1570, →OCLC:

(transitive, UK dialectal, Northern England, Scotland) To practise; to devote oneself to.


haunt

The lofty mountains roſe faint to the ſight and loſt their foreheads in the diſtant ſkies: the little hills, cloathed in darker green and ſkirted with embroidered vales, diſcovered the ſecret haunts of kids and bounding roes.

1769, Firishta, translated by Alexander Dow, Tales translated from the Persian of Inatulla of Delhi, volume I, Dublin: P. and W. Wilson et al., page iv:


ghost

en-noun

ghost (countable and uncountable, plural ghosts)

→ Japanese: ゴースト (gōsuto)

Inherited 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 Proto-West Germanic *gaist, from Proto-Germanic *gaistaz, from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰéysdos, derived 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’, likely introduced by Caxton's assistant, Wynkyn de Worde, as a result of Flemish influence, where it was spelled gheest at the time. Doublet of geist.

Everyone believed that the ghost of an old lady haunted the crypt.

The mighty ghosts of our great Harries rose.

1667, John Dryden, Annus Mirabilis: The Year of Wonders, 1666. […], London: […] Henry Herringman, […], →OCLC, (please specify the stanza number):

I thought that I had died in sleep/And was a blessed ghost

1798, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, The Rime of the Ancyent Marinere:

For a moment I was puzzled, but presently, of course, it struck me that he must have seen Ayesha, wrapped in her grave-like garment, and been deceived by the extraordinary undulating smoothness of her walk into a belief that she was a white ghost gliding towards him.

1886 October – 1887 January, H[enry] Rider Haggard, She: A History of Adventure, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1887, →OCLC:

Hepaticology, outside the temperate parts of the Northern Hemisphere, still lies deep in the shadow cast by that ultimate "closet taxonomist," Franz Stephani—a ghost whose shadow falls over us all.

1992, Rudolf M[athias] Schuster, The Hepaticae and Anthocerotae of North America: East of the Hundredth Meridian, volume V, Chicago, Ill.: Field Museum of Natural History, →ISBN, page vii:

The disembodied soul; the soul or spirit of a deceased person; a spirit appearing after death.


apparition

/ˌæp.əɹˈɪʃn̩/

/ˌæp.ɚˈɪʃ.n̩/

/ˌæp.ɚˈɪ.ʃən/

From Middle French apparition, from Latin apparitio, from appareo.

the sudden apparition of the Spaniards

1855–1858, William H[ickling] Prescott, History of the Reign of Philip the Second, King of Spain, volume (please specify |volume=I to III), Boston, Mass.: Phillips, Sampson, and Company, →OCLC:

The apparition of Lawyer Clippurse occasioned much speculation in that portion of the world.

1814 July 7, [Walter Scott], Waverley; or, ’Tis Sixty Years Since. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), Edinburgh: […] James Ballantyne and Co. for Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, →OCLC:

An act of becoming visible; appearance; visibility.

The attic is haunted by the ghostly apparition of a young girl who died there.

I think it is the weakness of mine eyes / That shapes this monstrous apparition.

1599 (first performance), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Iulius Cæsar”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene iii]:

The heavenly bands […] a glorious apparition.

1667, John Milton, “Book X”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC:

The apparition wobbled in front of Arthur's eyes, though the truth of the matter is probably that Arthur's eyes were wobbling in front of the apparition.

1982, Douglas Adams, Life, the Universe and Everything, page 24:

An unexpected, wonderful, or preternatural appearance; especially something such as a ghost or phantom.

привидение

(astronomy) The first appearance of a star or other luminary after having been invisible or obscured; opposed to occultation.

видимост

astronomy: the first appearance of a luminary after having been invisible or obscured

(astronomy) A period of consecutive days or nights when a particular celestial body may be observed, beginning with the heliacal rising of the body and ending with its heliacal setting.


haunted

en-adj

haunted (comparative more haunted, superlative most haunted or hauntedest)

more haunted (comparative)
most haunted (superlative)
hauntedest (superlative)

The hotel was haunted by a disembodied spirit.

Of a location, frequented by a ghost or ghosts.


specter

From French spectre, from Latin spectrum (“appearance, apparition”). Doublet of spectrum.

der

A specter haunted the cemetery at the old Vasquez manor.

A ghostly apparition, a phantom. [from 17th c.]


shade

en-noun

shade (countable and uncountable, plural shades)

Noun from Middle English schade, from Old English sċeadu, sċadu (“shadow; shade”), from Proto-West Germanic *skadu, from Proto-Germanic *skadwaz (“shadow; shade”). More at shadow.
Verb from Old English sceadwian, derived from sċeadu, above.

inh

Too long have I been haunted by that shade.

The adventurer was attacked by a shade.

Swift as thought the flitting shade / Thro' air his momentary journey made.

1700, [John] Dryden, “Ceyx and Alcyone”, in Fables Ancient and Modern; […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC:

Still, Birch House (a sop to the shade of the murdered Perak Resident) had no more than its normal share of flagellation[.]

1956, Anthony Burgess, Time for a Tiger (The Malayan Trilogy), published 1972, page 39:

(chiefly literary and fantasy) A ghost or specter; a spirit.


phantasm

A learned variant of phantom; from Middle English fantosme, from Old French fantosme, fantasme, from Latin phantasma, from Ancient Greek φάντασμα (phántasma). Doublet of phantom.

But night comes in with a more genial spirit: we have done our worst and our bitterest; and we need a small space to indulge any little bit of cordiality that may be left in us. A thousand gay phantasms float in on the sunny south, which has left the far-off vineyards of its birth.

1837, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], “Success”, in Ethel Churchill: Or, The Two Brides. […], volume II, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, page 75:

He declares that there seems to be no justification for regarding the phantasms of dreams as pure hallucinations; most dream-images are probably in fact illusions, since they arise from faint sense-impressions, which never cease during sleep.

1900, Sigmund Freud, translated by James Strachey, The Interpretation of Dreams: Avon Books, page 74:

Something seen but having no physical reality; a phantom or apparition.


phantom

From Middle English fantome, fanteme, from Old French fantosme, fantasme, from Latin phantasma (“an apparition, specter; (in Late Latin also) appearance, image”), from Ancient Greek φάντασμα (phántasma, “phantasm, an appearance, image, apparition, specter”), from φαντάζω (phantázō, “I make visible”). Doublet of phantasm.


spook

Borrowed from Dutch spook (“ghost”), from Middle Dutch spooc (“spook, ghost”). Cognate with Middle Low German spôk, spûk (“apparition, ghost”), Middle High German gespük (“a haunting”), German Spuk, Danish spøge (“to haunt”), Swedish spöke (“ghost”). Doublet of puck.


spook

→ Northern Ndebele: isipoko

→ Xhosa: isiporho

→ Zulu: isipoki

From Dutch spook, from Middle Dutch spoke, spooc, from Proto-Germanic *spōk.


spook

nl-noun

spook n (plural spoken, diminutive spookje n)

desctree

Afrikaans: spook
→ Northern Ndebele: isipoko
→ Xhosa: isiporho
→ Zulu: isipoki

Negerhollands: spook

→ English: spook

→ Papiamentu: spoki, spooki

From Middle Dutch spoke, spooc, from spoke, spoocke, spoicke (“wizardry, witchcraft”), from Proto-Germanic *spōk. Further etymology unclear. Cognate with Middle Low German spôk, Low German spôk, Middle High German Spuch, and German Spuk.

het spook van de oorlog

an imaginary horror, conceptual nightmare


spooky

en-adj

spooky (comparative spookier, superlative spookiest)

spookier (comparative)
spookiest (superlative)

(informal) Eerie, or suggestive of ghosts or the supernatural.


ghostly

ghostly (comparative ghostlier, superlative ghostliest)

ghostlier (comparative)
ghostliest (superlative)

From Middle English gostly, gastlich, from Old English gāstlīċ (“spiritual, holy, clerical (not lay), ghastly, ghostly, spectral”), from Proto-West Germanic *gaistalīk (“spiritual”), equivalent to ghost + -ly. Cognate with Scots ghaistly, gaistly (“spiritual, ghastly, terrifying”), West Frisian geastlik (“spiritual, clerical, religious”), Dutch geestelijk (“spiritual, clerical, ecclesiastical”), German geistlich (“spiritual, sacred, religious”), Danish geistlig (“ecclesiastical, clerical”).

cog

A ghostly hush fell.

Scores of coconut-shell fires blazed with their characteristic glaring white flame, throwing grotesque shadows on the brown thatched huts, dancing in fairylike shimmerings among the domes of coconut fronds, casting ghostly reaches of light through the adjacent graveyards, and silhouetting the forms of pareu-clad natives at work cleaning their fish or laying them on the live coals to broil.

1929, Robert Dean Frisbee, The Book of Puka-Puka, Eland, published 2019, page 35:

His lips were chapped and lined with a ghostly purple fringe.

2019, Dave Eggers, The Parade, N.Y.: Vintage Books, page 134:


strah

strȃh (canonical inanimate masculine)
strȃh (nominative singular)
strahȏva (dual nominative)
strahȏvi (nominative plural)
strahȗ (genitive singular)
strahóv (dual genitive)
strahóv (genitive plural)
strȃhu (dative singular)
strȃhi (dative singular)
strahȏvoma (dative dual)
strahȏvama (dative dual)
strahȏvom (dative plural)
strȃhȏvam (dative plural)
strȃh (accusative singular)
strahȏva (accusative dual)
strahȏve (accusative plural)
strȃhu (locative singular)
strȃhi (locative singular)
strahȏvih (dual locative)
strahȏvih (locative plural)
strȃhom (instrumental singular)
strahȏvoma (dual instrumental)
strahȏvama (dual instrumental)
strahȏvi (instrumental plural)
strȃh (singular vocative)
strahȏva (dual vocative)
strahȏvi (plural vocative)
strȃh (nominative singular)
strahȏva (dual nominative)
strahȏvi (nominative plural)
strȃha (genitive singular)
strahóv (dual genitive)
strahóv (genitive plural)
strȃhu (dative singular)
strȃhi (dative singular)
strahȏvoma (dative dual)
strahȏvama (dative dual)
strahȏvom (dative plural)
strȃhȏvam (dative plural)
strȃh (accusative singular)
strahȏva (accusative dual)
strahȏve (accusative plural)
strȃhu (locative singular)
strȃhi (locative singular)
strahȏvih (dual locative)
strahȏvih (locative plural)
strȃhom (instrumental singular)
strahȏvoma (dual instrumental)
strahȏvama (dual instrumental)
strahȏvi (instrumental plural)
strȃh (singular vocative)
strahȏva (dual vocative)
strahȏvi (plural vocative)

From Proto-Slavic *straxъ, from Proto-Balto-Slavic *strākš-, from Proto-Indo-European *(s)treg-.

strah je sredi votel, okoli ga pa nič ni

phantom, ghost (a scary mythical creature)


haint

"Ain't you scared of haints?"

1960 July 11, Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird, Philadelphia, Pa., New York, N.Y.: J[oshua] B[allinger] Lippincott Company, →OCLC, part 2, page 254:

I got a tree on my back and a haint in my house, and nothing in between but the daughter I am holding in my arms.

It didn't take long for word to spread that there was a "haint" in the graveyard. A haint is what the old-timers called a ghost.

2005, Eulie Rowan, “The Four-Legged Haint”, in The Seven Wonders of Sassafras Springs, Simon and Schuster, page 106:

My dead grandpa's haint floated above my bed one night when I was a young'un and scared me so bad I busted the bedroom door down tryin' to get out that room so fast.

2009, Mary Monroe, God Still Don't Like Ugly, page 211:

(US, dialectal) A ghost; a supernatural being; Alternative form of haunt.


ghostbuster

From ghost + buster, popularized by the 1984 film Ghostbusters.

Someone who purports to rid a place of ghosts.


revenant

19th century. From French revenant, the present participle of revenir (“to return”). Compare revenue.

For granting even that Religion were dead; that it had died, half-centuries ago, with unutterable Dubois; or emigrated lately, to Alsace, with Necklace-Cardinal Rohan; or that it now walked as goblin revenant with Bishop Talleyrand of Autun; yet does not the Shadow of Religion, the Cant of Religion, still linger?

1837, Thomas Carlyle, The French Revolution: A History […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), London: Chapman and Hall, →OCLC, (please specify the book or page number):

Earlier you mentioned a ghost, a revenant with which we may contaminate the Emperor.

1969, Frank Herbert, Dune Messiah, published 2008, →ISBN, page 19:

And to a revenant who had lived in body after body, died death after death, evanescence could seem like a dream of peace. But the chimaera could ill afford to let soldiers go.

2011, Laini Taylor, Daughter of Smoke & Bone, →ISBN:

If reports from the time are to be believed, 17th-century Poland was awash in revenants—not vampires, exactly, but proto-zombies who harassed the living by drinking their blood or, less disagreeably, stirring up a ruckus in their homes.

2023 September 5, Franz Lidz, “Undying Dread: A 400-Year-Old Corpse, Locked to Its Grave”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

A supernatural being that returns from the dead; a zombie or ghost.


幽霊

幽霊 (canonical)
yūrei (romanization)
iurei (romanization)
いうれい (hiragana historical)

From Middle Chinese compound 幽靈／幽灵 (ʔjiw leng, literally “dark + supernatural”). Compare modern Mandarin reading yōulíng, Min Nan iu-lêng.

死霊, 死霊

a spirit of the dead, a ghost, a departed soul

幽霊会社: a phantom company: a paper company

phantom stock: company stock that has not actually been traded

幽霊人口 ゆうれいじんこう

幽霊人口: phantom population: population figures that are artificially inflated from fraudulent paperwork

幽霊文字

ghost characters, Chinese characters of unknown origin or meaning

幽霊屋敷

幽霊屋敷 ゆうれいやしき


幽霊

ryu-head

幽霊(ゆーりー) (yūrī)


dobby

en-noun

dobby (countable and uncountable, plural dobbies)

(chiefly Nottingham) The children's game of tag.


duppy

Jamaica, circa 18th century. From Bube dupe (“ghost”) (compare Akan adɔpe).

(Jamaica, games) A drawn game of noughts and crosses (in Jamaica tii-taa-tuo).


กุมาร

From Sanskrit कुमार (kumāra, “boy; child; groom; heir apparent; prince; son; young man; etc”, literally “one who easily dies”); probably via Old Khmer កុមារ៑ (kumār) or Pre-Angkorian Old Khmer កុមារ (kumāra, “boy; son; youth; prince, heir apparent, crown prince (found only as a personal name, slave name, and toponym)”).
Cognate with Modern Khmer កុមារ (komaa), Lao ກຸມານ (ku mān).

bor

(slang) child ghost servant, created by surgically removing an unborn baby from the womb of its mother, roasting the baby until its body dries during a rite held at a graveyard, and covering the dry-roasted corpse with gold leaf. The corpse is carried by someone who believes that the ghost dwelling in it may be employed.


โสม

th-noun

โสม • (sǒom)

From Sanskrit सोम (soma, “soma plant; a kind of boiled vine from Vedic India, made from the plant soma, drunk as medicine and offered to gods; also associated with the moon after the Vedic period”). Cognate with Old Khmer soma°; Modern Khmer សោម (saom).

bor

(botany) Jewels of Opar, flameflower (Talinum paniculatum, family Portulacaceae)

(botany) sweetheart (Talinum fruticosum, family Portulacaceae).

(botany) any of the various plants of the genus Panax (family Araliaceae).

(Hinduism) a kind of beverage made from the juice of an ivy plant mixed with clarified butter, traditionally offered to Indra and other gods.


กระสือ

th-noun

กระสือ • (grà-sʉ̌ʉ)

/kra˨˩.sɯː˩˩˦/

(botany) a type of turmeric that resembles zedoary, traditionally believed to be of a supernatural power to possess a woman like the said spirit.


haunted house

en-noun

haunted house (countable and uncountable, plural haunted houses)

بَيْت أَشْبَاح

house believed to be a center for supernatural occurrences

It was easy to see that it was an avoided house—a house that was shunned by the village, to which my eye was guided by a church spire some half a mile off—a house that nobody would take. And the natural inference was, that it had the reputation of being a haunted house.

1859, Charles Dickens, “The Mortals in the House”, in The Haunted House:

Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see haunted, house.


ghosthunting

Investigations that aim to track down ghosts.

spokenjacht

Investigations aiming to track down ghosts


ghosthunter

They watched the two ghost-hunters run own the corridor and go crashing over the trip-wire.

1971, Richard Carpenter, Catweazle and the Magic Zodiac, Harmondsworth: Puffin Books, page 119:

His reputation as a ghosthunter grew stronger and others began contacting him for investigations and "exorcisms."

1992, Blanche Barton, The secret life of a Satanist: the authorized biography of Anton LaVey:

The most prolific and successful German horror writer of the Hefte is Helmut Rellergerd (1945-), who writes as Jason Dark about a ghosthunter named John...

1999, John Clute, John Grant, The encyclopedia of fantasy:

The Frighteners (1996) has a ghosthunter, Frank, working with a trio of ghosts who infest premises that he then clears.

2004, Tom Ruffles, Ghost images: cinema of the afterlife:

The last two years have certainly made me a ghosthunter, perhaps not in the intensive style exhibited by ghosthunter clubs and "professional" ghosthunters...

2005, John B Kachuba, Ghosthunting Illinois:

A person who attempts to track down ghosts.


ghostbusting

(informal) The activities of a ghostbuster; exorcism of ghosts.


ghostology

ghostology (usually uncountable, plural ghostologies)

/ɡəʊsˈtɒləd͡ʒi/

[…] it seemed even more unaccountable than if it had been a thing of ghostology and witchcraft.

1872, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Septimius Felton; or, the Elixir of Life:

This, as all students of ghostology are aware, has frequently been the case; and it was precisely the case with the ghost seen by the famous Lord Brougham, […]

1908, H. Addington Bruce, “The Ghost Seen by Lord Brougham”, in Historic Ghosts and Ghost Hunters:

Experts in ghostology know exactly, where ghosts live, how they behave, how to deal with them, how to make them appear and disappear.

1957, William L. Fischer, Critical Notes on Evolution, page 30:

The knowledge, or study of ghosts or spirits; the science of the supernatural; spiritism.


lemures

Coordinate term: Lares

The Lars and Lemures moan with midnight plaint.

1629, John Milton, “On the Morning of Christs Nativity”, in Poems of Mr. John Milton, […], London: […] Ruth Raworth for Humphrey Mosely, […], published 1646, →OCLC:

So still lay the figure, and so dim was its outline, that any other than Arbaces might have felt a superstitious fear, lest he beheld one of those grim lemures, who, above all other spots, haunted the threshold of the homes they formerly possessed.

1834, [Edward Bulwer-Lytton], chapter VII, in The Last Days of Pompeii. […], volume III, London: Richard Bentley, […]; successor to Henry Colburn, →OCLC, book IV, page 13:

(Roman mythology) The spirits or ghosts of the dead, considered as malignant.


ghostlore

From ghost + lore (“learning, knowledge”).

Three other sections of the state are important in this connection: the Adirondack Mountains and parts of the Catskills, which while sparsely settled and only slightly represented in this collection, have much good ghostlore yet to be collected.

1982, Louis Clark Jones, Three Eyes on the Past:

When one person tells another of a frightening experience, he is passing on ghostlore.

1995, Charles Edwin Price, Haunted Tennessee:

From ruthless gangsters to restless mail order kings, from the Fort Dearborn Massacre to the St. Valentine's Day Massacre, the phantom remains of the passionate people and volatile events of Chicago history have made the Second City second to none in the annals of American ghostlore.

2004, Ted Okuda, Jack Mulqueen, The Golden Age of Chicago Children's Television:

Ghost stories and tales of railroad heroics and tragedy may have mixed to create this unique type of ghostlore.

2019, Matthew L. Swayne, Haunted Rails: Tales of Ghost Trains, Phantom Conductors, and Other Railroad Spirits, Llewellyn Worldwide, →ISBN:


เปรต

From Sanskrit प्रेत (preta, “dead body; dead person; ghost; etc”, literally “one who has gone; one who has departed; one who has passed away”). Cognate with English preta; Lao ເຜດ (phēt); Old Khmer preta; Modern Khmer ប្រេត (praet).

bor

(Buddhism, Hinduism) preta: a type of supernatural creature born to undergo punishment or suffering as a result of sinful deeds committed in previous lives.


chindi

According to Navajo beliefs, a harmful ghost that leaves a person's body when they die and may remain around their possessions.


ผีดิบ

th-noun

ผีดิบ • (pǐi-dìp)

/pʰiː˩˩˦.dip̚˨˩/

From ผี (pǐi, “corpse; ghost; etc”) + ดิบ (dìp, “uncremated”).

com

(fiction) preternatural being believed to be a reanimated corpse, such as vampire, zombie, etc.


ปอบ

th-noun

ปอบ • (bpɔ̀ɔp)

Cognate with Isan ปอบ, Lao ປອບ (pǭp), Northern Thai ᨸᩬᨷ, and Khün ᨸᩬᨷ.

a type of evil spirit in Thai folklore, believed to possess a person and devour his or her viscera before leaving, thus causing the person to die.


สมิง

สมิง • (sà-mǐng)

From Mon သၟီ (“king; prince”). Cognate with Burmese သမိန် (sa.min).

เสือ เสือ#Thai

(เสือ~) a type of evil spirit in Thai folklore, believed to be a person that turns into a tiger by the power of black magic or a tiger that can transform itself into a human due to being possessed by the ghosts of its human preys.


ฉมบ

From Old Khmer chmap (“midwife”) or Pre-Angkorian Old Khmer cmap (“idem”). Cognate with Modern Khmer ឆ្មប (chmɑɑp, “midwife”).

/t͡ɕʰa˨˩.mop̚˦˥/

a type of spirit in Thai folklore, believed to be the ghost of a woman that dwells at the place of her death, especially in a forest.


ทางสามแพร่ง

/tʰaːŋ˧.saːm˩˩˦.pʰrɛŋ˥˩/

From ทาง (taang, “path; road; way”) + สาม (sǎam, “three”) + แพร่ง (prɛ̂ng, “fork (of road, way, etc)”); literally "three-forked way".

com

T-junction, traditionally believed to be employed by the dead and thus deemed a very unholy spot.


พราย

From Old Khmer brāya, from Angkorian Old Khmer vrāy (“(1) a type of spirit, recognised by the light it emits; (2) to glitter, to sparkle; (3) to scatter, to spread; etc”). Cognate with Modern Khmer ព្រាយ (priəy), Lao ພາຍ (phāi), Shan ၽၢႆး (pháai), Phake ၸႝ (phay, “giant, monster”), Aiton ၸႝ (phay, “giant, monster”), Ahom 𑜇𑜩 (phay, “giant”). Compare Proto-Tai *praːiᴬ.

bor

(folklore, mythology, loosely) a type of imaginary creature, conceived of as inhabiting the rivers, mountains, trees, etc, as nymph, elf, naiad, etc.


jumbie

From Kongo zumbi (“fetish”). Doublet of zombie.

If one wants to see “jumbies” “duppies” ghosts, all that is necessary is to put in your eye the tears from the eyes of a pie-bald horse. It is no use explaining to a negro that what he has taken to be a “jumbie” or apparition, is a tree or rock or other natural object.

1882, G.H. Hawtayne, “Occasional notes: West Indian Folk-lore”, in Timehri: Being the Journal of the Royal Agricultural and Commercial Society of British Guiana, volume 1, page 145:

Jethro stomped away up the hill, though the trail was supposed to be haunted by spirits of the dead called jumbies. He didn't care. He didn't believe in jumbies.

1979, Susan Cooper, Jethro and the Jumbie, page 5:

(chiefly Caribbean) A ghost or evil spirit.


𑀧𑁂𑀅

head

<i class="Deva mention" lang="pra">पेअ</i>

Inherited from Sanskrit प्रेत (preta). Cognate with Pali peta.


isiporho

xh-noun

isiporho class 7 (plural iziporho class 8)

Borrowed from Afrikaans spook, from Dutch spook, from Middle Dutch spoke, spooc, from spoke, spoocke, spoicke (“wizardry, witchcraft”), from Proto-Germanic *spōk.


โขมด

th-noun

โขมด • (kà-mòot)

From Old Khmer ខ្មោច (khmoca), ក្មោច្ច៑ (kmocc), ខ្មោច៑ (khmoc, “corpse; ghost, spirit; ancestral spirit; etc”). Cognate with Modern Khmer ខ្មោច (khmaoc).

gleaming light seen at night, traditionally believed to be a type of nocturnal ghost that leads travellers astray, scientifically explained to be light naturally produced by methane.


ตายทั้งกลม

From ตาย (dtaai, “to die”) + ทั้งกลม (táng-glom, “all”).

com

2018, คณิตยา/คีตฌาณ์, สาปรัก, Bangkok: Hytexts Interactive Limited:
คุณเคยบังคับให้ผู้หญิงคนหนึ่งไปทำแท้งแต่ผู้หญิงคนนั้นแอบเก็บลูกไว้ คุณรู้เข้าก็เลยซ้อมเธอและผลคือ...เธอตกเลือดตาย เธอตายทั้งกลม และตอนนี้วิญญาณของเธอก็อยู่ในห้องนี้
kun kəəi bang-káp hâi pûu-yǐng kon nʉ̀ng bpai tam-tɛ́ng dtɛ̀ɛ pûu-yǐng kon nán ɛ̀ɛp gèp lûuk wái · kun rúu kâo gɔ̂ɔ-ləəi sɔ́ɔm təə lɛ́ pǒn kʉʉ ... təə dtòk-lʉ̂ʉat dtaai · təə dtaai-táng-glom · lɛ́ dtɔɔn-níi win-yaan kɔ̌ɔng təə gɔ̂ yùu nai hɔ̂ng níi
You once forced a woman to undertake abortion, but that woman secretly kept [her] womb. You came to know [it, you] then bashed her up, and the result was...she died [from obstetrical] bleeding. She died together with the child in her womb. And now, the ghost of hers is being in this room.

2014, ดอน ท่าศาลา, เปิดป่าช้าล่าผีไทย, Bangkok: ไพลินบุ๊คเน็ต, →ISBN, page 32:
นางนาคคลอดยาก ทำอย่างไรเด็กก็ไม่ยอมออกมา...นางนาคก็ต้องตายทั้งกลม
naang nâak klɔ̂ɔt yâak · tam yàang-rai dèk gɔ̂ mâi yɔɔm ɔ̀ɔk maa ... naang nâak gɔ̂ dtɔ̂ng dtaai-táng-glom
Nang Nak had a difficulty giving birth. [No matter] how [they] did, the child would not come out easily... Nang Nak thus ended up dying together with the child in her womb.

2012 February 20, “เฮี้ยน ชาวบ้านผวาผีตายทั้งกลม สั่งผ่าเด็กออกแล้วเผาแม่”, in คมชัดลึก, Bangkok: กะปุก, retrieved 2019-09-16:
วันนี้ (๒๐ กุมภาพันธ์) ผู้สื่อข่าวได้รับแจ้งจาก...หัวหน้าเจ้าหน้าที่กู้ภัย สภ.วิเศษชัยชาญว่า กำลังจะเดินทางไปรับศพหญิงตายทั้งกลมที่วัดเกศทอง...เพื่อนำทารกออกจากครรภ์ของศพ
wan-níi · (yîi sìp · gum-paa-pan) · pûu-sʉ̀ʉ-kàao dâai-ráp jɛ̂ɛng jàak ... hǔua-nâa jâao-nâa-tîi gûu-pai · sɔ̌ɔ-pɔɔ wí-sèet-chai-chaan wâa · gam-lang jà dəən-taang bpai ráp sòp yǐng dtaai-táng-glom tîi wát gèet tɔɔng ... pʉ̂ʉa nam taa-rók ɔ̀ɔk jàak kan kɔ̌ɔng sòp
Today (20 February), reporters had received information from...the Head of the Wiset Chai Chan PPS Rescue Officials that [he] was about to go out to pick at Wat Ket Thong the body of a woman [who] died together with the child in her womb...to [further] take the [deceased] baby out of the corpse's womb.

(of a pregnant woman) to die together with the child or children in her womb.


nightmarcher

From night + marcher. Calque of Hawaiian huakaʻi pō.

... happening in, will not become confused and angry in his efforts to get out. Beds should not be placed directly opposite doorways. One keeps indoors when the Nightmarchers are abroad. On certain nights these progressions of ghosts can […]

1988, John Donald Kingsley, The Antioch Review:

The tail of that sinuous line of nightmarchers seemed very horrible, and as I saw them wriggling into a venerable tomb they seemed more horrible still. Then I noticed that the tomb's floor had an aperture down which the throng was sliding, and ...

1997, Howard Phillips Lovecraft, Crawling Chaos: Selected Pulp Fiction:

[…] understood the vision of nightmarchers described by the Chinese man. Sometimes the phantom marchers will be seen stopping at the house of a dying person, to prepare to escort them into the afterlife. In this case, the nightmarchers were […]

1999, Glen Grant, Obake Files: Ghostly Encounters in Supernatural Hawai'I, Mutual Publishing Company, →ISBN, page 122:

"And he hide; da buggah wen hide; if you discovered by a nightmarcher, they take you, boy. So, folks, always watch da road. Go where it's safe." The haole couple next to me nervously chuckled. An understated fright.

2002, Rona Tamiko Halualani, In the Name of Hawaiians: Native Identities and Cultural Politics, U of Minnesota Press, →ISBN, page 166:

Something from Irene's journals, about what to do if you happen across a nightmarcher on a moon-filled night.

2018, J. Lincoln Fenn, The Nightmarchers, Simon and Schuster, →ISBN:

In Hawaiian folklore, a ghost of an ancient Hawaiian warrior who marches together with other such ghosts on certain sacred nights from their burial sites or the ocean to the sites of ancient battles or sacred places.


spookological

In an autobiographical essay published in 1997, Money explains “[t]he general tendency is to want to say that gender identity is either biological or not biological — to which my jocular response is that if it’s not biological, then it must be spookological or occult, for there is a biology of learning and remembering, and it does affect the brain, doesn’t it?”

2017 June 30, Michaela Koch, Discursive Intersexions: Daring Bodies Between Myth, Medicine, and Memoir, Bielefeld: Transcript Verlag, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 123, →ISBN:

(informal) Relating to the study of ghosts.


caça-fantasma

pt-noun

caça-fantasma m or f by sense (plural caça-fantasmas)

From caçar (“to hunt”) + fantasma (“ghost”).

Rivaldo aparece com mais força para enfrentar o Gasparzinho. Como um autêntico caça-fantasma, ele lembra que, ao chegar em La Coruña, só ouvia de Bebeto.

1997 December 5, Rogério Daflon, “três por 1”, in Placar, number 1134, cidadão do mundo, page 61:

Rivaldo comes out stronger to face Gasparzinho. Like a true ghosthunter, he recalls that when he arrived in La Coruña, all he heard about was Bebeto.


ра̄вэшк

head

ра̄вэшк (rāvešk)

(obsolete or dialectal) the carcass, carrion of an animal

(obsolete or dialectal, anatomy) skeleton