Ghaistly

Part of speech: adjective

Definitions

1. Having the eerie, spectral quality associated with a ghost or something supernatural
2. Looking unsettling and otherworldly, as if belonging to a spirit rather than the living
3. Resembling a phantom in its pale, haunting, uncanny appearance

Etymology: Ghaistly is a Scots and northern English form of "ghastly", and it preserves an older sense that the standard spelling has largely lost. The root is Old English "gæstlic", meaning "spiritual" or "of a spirit", from "gæst", "spirit" or "ghost", which is also the source of the modern "ghost" in its earlier spelling "gost". The Old English word was a neutral term for anything relating to the soul or spirit, so a "ghastly" thing was once simply something spectral. The meaning darkened over time. By the late Middle Ages, "gastly" or "gastlich" could describe something that frightened or appalled someone, as if it were a visitation from the dead. The sense of "ghastly" meaning pale or deathlike, as in a ghastly face, grew out of that frightening sense, and only later did the word broaden into a general term for anything horrible or very unpleasant. Ghaistly keeps the spelling "gh" that Scots writers used for the Middle English "gh" sound, which in older Scots was pronounced as a guttural. Its use today is mostly literary or dialectal, and it is most often seen in Scottish writing where the spectral sense still resonates.

Synonyms: ghastly, ghostly, eerie, spectral

Antonyms: cheerful, lively