Giestran

Part of speech: adverb, noun

Definitions

1. Old English verb meaning to tarry, dawdle or stay somewhere longer than expected ; to annoy, disturb or cause distress to someone
2. An archaic verb for remaining behind or lingering in a place ; a rare sense meaning to harass, vex or trouble another person
3. To dally or delay in one place for a time ; to worry, irritate or afflict someone in an old-fashioned way

Etymology: In Old English, "giestran" was a verb meaning to linger, tarry, or delay, the kind of waiting that comes from staying longer than planned. It appears only rarely in surviving texts, mostly in glosses that pair it with Latin words for delay, so its meaning is clearer than its usage. Its ancestry is less certain. It is probably related to the Old English noun "gæst," meaning spirit or stranger, which also gave us "ghost," and that link is one reason the verb is often connected with the idea of staying or abiding. Dictionaries treat that connection as a likely but unproven one. The verb did not survive into modern English, so it has no direct descendant.