Phantoms

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A spectral entity or image that conjures feelings of dread or curiosity
2. An unseen spirit believed to appear or haunt a place ; a misleading or deceptive appearance resembling something unreal
3. A supernatural being or figure thought to be the soul of a dead person ; a false or imaginary vision causing confusion or doubt

Etymology: The surprising thread here runs through a word that once meant "to make visible." The Ancient Greek "phantasma" came from "phantazein," a verb meaning to make appear or to bring into view, and "phantasma" was the thing so brought into view: an appearance, an image, a specter. The Greek noun carried no built-in sense of dread. A thing that appeared was simply something seen, and the frightening sense grew from that neutral starting point. The Romans borrowed the Greek word as "phantasma," and it passed into Old French as "fantosme" or "fantasme," meaning something like an apparition or a figment. English took it from Old French in the form "fantome" in Middle English, and the spelling was later reshaped to "phantom" to echo the Latin and Greek original. The result is that "phantom" and "phantasm" are doublets: two English words that descend from the same Greek source by different routes, one through French and one more directly from Latin.

Synonyms: ghosts, specters, apparitions

Antonyms: reality, fact