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i love the oed.
this is the story of the word ghost.
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ghost, n.
SECOND EDITION 1989
(g{schwa}{shtu}st) Forms: 1 gást, g{aeacu}st, 2-5 gast(e, 3-6 gost(e, 4-6 goost(e, 6 Sc. goast, goist, 5-6 ghoste, ghoost, (6 ghoast, 8 ghest), 5- ghost, 6- Sc. g(h)aist. [Common WGer.: OE. gást (also g{aeacu}st) str. masc. = OFris. gâst, OS. gêst (Du. geest), OHG. (MHG., mod.Ger.) geist:{em}OTeut. type *gaisto-z.
Although the word is known only in the WGer. langs. (in all of which it is found with substantially identical meaning), it appears to be of pre-Teut. formation. The sense of the pre-Teut. *ghoizdo-z, if the ordinary view of its etymological relations be correct, should be ‘fury, anger’; cf. Skr. h{emacacu}{ddotab}as neut. anger, Zend z{omac}i{zhacek}da- ugly; the root *gheis-, *ghois- appears with cognate sense in ON. geisa to rage, Goth. usgaisjan to terrify (see GAST v.); outside Teut. the derivatives seem to point to a primary sense ‘to wound, tear, pull to pieces’.
The OE. form g{aeacu}st is constant in the Exeter Book, and occurs 49 times in the Hatton MS. and 3 times in the Bodl. MS. of Alfred's transl. of Gregory's Pastoral Care; it is app. not known elsewhere. The occurrence of g{aeacu}st:{em}*gaisti- beside gást:{em}*gaisto- is explained by Sievers (Ags. Gram. ed. 3) as indicating that the word, though recorded only as masc., was orig. a neut. -os, -es stem: it would thus correspond formally to the Skr. word quoted above.
The spelling with gh-, so far as our material shows, appears first in Caxton, who was probably influenced by the Flemish gheest. It remained rare until the middle of the 16th c., and was not completely established before about 1590.]
1. The soul or spirit, as the principle of life; also ghost of life. Obs. exc. in phrase to give up ({dag}earlier to give, give away, yield up) the ({dag}one's) ghost: to breathe one's last, expire, die.
a900 in O.E. Texts 178 Se casere hio heht {asg}emartyria(n), & God wuldriende heo a{asg}eaf hire gast. a1000 Cædmon's Gen. 1281 (Gr.) He wolde..forleosan lica {asg}ehwilc, {th}ara {th}e lifes gast fæ{edh}mum {th}eahte. c1205 LAY. 23986 {Th}a feol Frolle folde to grunde..his gost he bi-læfde. a1225 Juliana 59 As ha {ygh}eide to godd & walde a{ygh}eouen hire gast in to his honden. a1300 Cursor M. 5188 His gast bigan to quiken egain. c1305 St. Lucy 171 in E.E.P. (1862) 106 Wi{th} {th}e laste word heo {ygh}af {th}e gost. 13.. E.E. Allit. P. B. 325 Alle {th}at glydez & gotz, & gost of lyf habbez. 1377 LANGL. P. Pl. B. xv. 141 By lered, by lewed {th}at loth is to spende {Th} us gone her godes be {th}e goste faren. 1388 WYCLIF Matt. xxvii. 50 Jhesus eftsoone criede with a greet voyce and {ygh}af vp the goost. c1400 Destr. Troy 8216 He gird to the ground & the gost past. c1450 Mirour Saluacioun 4833 Thow herde hym his goost commende til his fadere on the crosse. c1460 Towneley Myst. xvi. 155, I wote I yelde my gast, so sore my hart it grefys. c1510 MORE Picus Wks. 8/2 He might ere he gaue vp ye goste, receiue his full draught of loue and compassion. 1574 Mirr. Mag., Albanact. lxviii, He gasped thryse, and gaue away the ghost. a1586 SIDNEY Arcadia (1622) 275 But when indeede shee found his ghost was gone, then Sorrow lost the witte of utterance. 1598 R. GRENEWEY Tacitus' Ann. VI. x. 136 Being fallen downe and yeelding vp his ghost. 1746-7 HERVEY Medit. (1818) 13 It was his last wish..He breathed it out, and gave up the ghost. 1816 J. WILSON City of Plague II. iii. 143, I have seen for two months past some score i' the day Give up the ghost. 1879 F. T. POLLOK Sport Brit. Burmah I. 127 A tiger..shot through the heart..is still capable of killing half-a-dozen men before giving up the ghost.
fig. 1892 Idler Sept. 220 The old mill..has tumbled down and given up the ghost.
{dag}2. Used as the conventional equivalent for L. spiritus, in contexts where the sense is breath or a blast. Obs.
c825 Vesp. Psalter x[i]. 7 Gast ysta [Vulg. spiritus procellarum]. c1000 Ags. Ps. (Spelm.) cxxxiv. 17 Ne ne..is gast on mu{edh}e heora. a1340 HAMPOLE Psalter x. 7 Gast of stormes. 1340 {emem} Pr. Consc. 4610 {Th}e boke says, alswa, {th}at he, Thurgh {th}e gast of Goddes mouthe slayn sal be. ?a1500 Chester Pl. (E.E.T.S.) ii. 95 Fowles in the ayer flying and all that ghoste hath. 1625 GILL Sacr. Philos. VIII. 113 The word Ghost in English..is as much as athem, or breath; in our new Latine language, a Spirit.
3. a. The spirit, or immaterial part of man, as distinct from the body or material part; the seat of feeling, thought, and moral action. Also, in New Testament language, the SPIRIT or higher moral nature of man; opposed to flesh. Obs. exc. in nonce-uses.
a1000 Cædmon's Exod. 447 (Gr.) Folc wæs afæred; flode{asg}sa becwom gastas {asg}eomre. c1000 Ags. Gosp. Matt. xxvi. 41 Witudlice se gast is hræd & {th}æt flæsc ys untrum. c1200 Trin. Coll. Hom. 189 {Edh}e lichame winne{edh} to{ygh}enes {th}e gost. c1220 Bestiary 550, I mene {edh}e stedefast in ri{ygh}te leue mid fles and gast. a1250 Owl & Night. 1396 Sum a-rist of the flesches luste, An sum of the gostes custe. a1300 Cursor M. 18602 Quils his licam lai vnder stan In gast es he til hell gan. a1325 Prose Psalter l. 18 [li. 17] Trubled gost is sacrifice to God. c1460 Towneley Myst. xi. 50 My gost gladys with luf, In god that is my hele. c1500 Lancelot 1031 Deuoydit was his spritis and his gost. 1596 SPENSER Hymn Beautie 24 Whose faire immortall beame Hath darted fyre into my feeble ghost. 1674 N. FAIRFAX Bulk & Selv. 12 It will be a good step towards the knowledg of what the world ought to be to us, who are body and ghost together. 1850 TENNYSON In Mem. xciii, Descend, and touch..That in this blindness of the frame, My Ghost may feel that thine is near. 1855 LONGFELLOW Hiaw. xvii. 164 The ghost, the Jeebi in him, Thought and felt as Pau-Puk-Keewis.
b. Philos. the ghost in the machine: Gilbert Ryle's name for the mind viewed as separate from the body (see quots.).
1949 G. RYLE Concept of Mind i. 15 Such in outline is the official theory. I shall often speak of it, with deliberate abusiveness, as ‘the dogma of the Ghost in the machine’. Ibid. 22 The dogma of the Ghost in the machine..maintains that there exist both bodies and minds; that there are mechanical causes of corporeal movements and mental causes of corporeal movements. 1960 J. O. URMSON Conc. Encycl. Western Philos. 350/1 We are inclined to construe the concept of mind as of an extra object situated in the body and controlling it by a set of unwitnessable activities; this is what he [sc. Ryle] calls the dogma of the ghost (the mind) in the machine (the body). Ryle regards this picture as totally misleading. 1961 Mind LXX. 103 Certainly he [sc. Teilhard de Chardin] imports a ghost, the entelechy or élan vital of an earlier terminology, into the Mendelian machine. 1967 KOESTLER (title) The ghost in the machine.
{dag}4. A person. Cf. the similar use of SOUL, SPIRIT.
a1000 Guthlac 690 in Exeter Bk., {Th}æt se leofesta gæst {asg}e{asg}earwad in godes wære on {asg}efean ferde. c1305 Pol. Songs (Camden) 70 The Kyng..Brohte from Alemayne mony sori gost to store Wyndesore. 1387 TREVISA Higden (Rolls) VI. 253 Aigolandus was a lewed goost and lewed~liche i-meved as {th}e devel hym tau{ygh}te. 1399 LANGL. Rich. Redeles I. 25 Graceles gostis gylours of hem-self..sawe no manere si{ygh}th saff solas and ese. 1590 SPENSER F.Q. II. viii. 26 No knight so rude, I weene, As to doen outrage to a sleeping ghost.
{dag}5. a. An incorporeal being; a spirit. local ghost = L. genius loci. Obs.
1297 R. GLOUC. (Rolls) 2750 {Th}e clerkes sede..{Th}at {th}er be{th} in {th}e eyr an hey, ver fram {th}e grounde, As a maner gostes..{Th}at men clupe{th} eluene. c1600 SHAKES. Sonn. lxxxvi, That affable familiar ghost Which nightly gulls him with intelligence. 1618 BOLTON Florus I. xiii. (1636) 39 When they beheld the purple-cloathed Senatours sitting in their chayres of state, they worshipt them at first as gods or locall ghosts.
{dag}b. A good spirit, an angel. Obs.
c900 tr. Bæda's Hist. III. xiv. [xix.] (1890) 214 Heo..eft mid {th}æm engelicum gastum to heofonum hwurfen. a1000 Cædmon's Gen. 2430 (Gr.) Aras {th}a metodes {th}eow gastum to{asg}eanes. a1240 Sawles Warde in Cott. Hom. 261 Ich biseh to {th}e engles..iblescede gastes {th}e beo{edh} a biuore godd. c1485 Digby Myst. III. 601, I am {th}e gost of goodnesse {th}at so wold {ygh}e gydde.
{dag}c. An evil spirit. the loath, foul, wicked ghost: the Devil. Obs.
a1000 Christ & Satan (Gr.-Wülk.) 126 Se were{asg}a gast. c1000 Ags. Gosp. Matt. xii. 43 Se unclæna gast utfær{th} fram menn. c1200 ORMIN 8064 Herode king ma{ygh}{ygh} swi{th}e wel {Th}e la{th}e gast bitacnenn. c1200 Trin. Coll. Hom. 87 Swiche hertes fonde{edh} {th}e fule gost deies and nihtes. a1300 Cursor M. 170 How iesus quen he long had fast Was fondid wit {th}e wik gast. a1350 Life Jesu (Horstm.) 232 {Th}ou lu{th}ere gost and doumb..def and vn milde, Ich hote {th}e {th}at {th}ov wende hasteliche fram {th}e childe. 1377 LANGL. P. Pl. B. XVIII. 431 May no grysly gost glyde {th}ere it shadweth. c1420 Anturs of Arth. (Thornton) 163 Nowe I am a grisely gaste, and grymly graue With Lucefere. 1529 MORE Comf. agst. Trib. II. Wks. 1178/1 Oure wrestlynge is..against the spiritual wicked gostes of the ayre.
6. Formerly used in the sense of SPIRIT (of God). Now only in HOLY GHOST, the usual designation of the Third Person of the Trinity in liturgical and dogmatic language.
‘Thy Ghost’ for ‘Thy Holy Ghost’ in quot. 1871 is merely a nonce-use.
c825 Vesp. Psalter cxxxviii[i]. 7 Hwider gongu ic from gaste {edh}inum. c1000 Ags. Gosp. John xiv. 26 Se hali{asg}a frofre gast. c1050 Byrhtferth's Handboc in Anglia VIII. 310 On {th}am dæ{asg}e godes gast com to mancynne. a1300 Cursor M. 26041 He has couerd {th}e seuen Giftes o {th}e gast of heuen, {Th}e quilk he had al forwit tint. 13.. E.E. Allit. P. B. 1598 A ha{th}el..{Th}at hatz {th}e gostes of god {th}at gyes alle so{th}es. 1340 Ayenb. 53 {Th}e zixte [libbe{th}] be {th}e goste and be {th}e loue of god. c1386 CHAUCER Prioress' T. 18 O mooder mayde!..That rauysedest doun fro the deitee, Thurgh thyn humblesse, the goost {th}at in thalighte. c1400 MANDEVILLE (Roxb.) xv. 68 Ihesu Criste was {th}e worde and {th}e gaste of Godd. c1440 York Myst. xxi. 14 He schall giffe baptyme more entire in fire and gaste. c1550 CHEKE Mark i. 10 He saw ye heavens departed, and ye ghoost to come down lijk a doov on him. 1552 LATIMER Fruitf. Serm. (1584) 330 The onely remedy, is to call vpon God to endue thee with the Holy Ghost..Call I say vppon almighty God for this Ghost [1607 ed. helpe]. 1647 H. MORE Song of Soul I. II. xci, God's Spirit is no private empty shade But that great Ghost that fills both earth and sky. 1871 G. MACDONALD Sonn. conc. Jesus iv, 'Tis man himself, the temple of thy Ghost.
{dag}7. The soul of a deceased person, spoken of as inhabiting the unseen world. In later use only = MANES; sometimes pl. Obs.
a800 in O.E. Texts 149 To ymbhycggannae..huaet his gastae..aefter deothdaege doemid uueorth[a]e. c835 Charter ibid. 448 {Th}onne foe se hlaford to & {edh}a hi{asg}an æt kristes cirican, & hit minum gaste nytt {asg}edoen. c1200 Trin. Coll. Hom. 169 Wite{edh} {ygh}ie awariede gostes in to eche fur. c1290 St. Brandan 525 in S. Eng. Leg. I. 234 Heo i-sei{ygh}e on-ouewarde..A wrechche gost, naked and bar. a1300 Cursor M. 18603 His bodi here, his gast was {th}ar, His goddhede wanted no{th}er-quar. 1606 G. W[OODCOCKE] tr. Justin's Hist. 126 He did sacrifice to his Wiues Ghost. 1654 R. CODRINGTON tr. Justin's Hist. 470 He took Gryphina, the wife of Gryphus, prisoner, who killed her sister, and by her death did parentate to the Ghosts of his wife. a1674 CLARENDON Hist. Reb. XI. §124 To take full vengeance for the loss of Rainsborough, to whose Ghost he design'd an ample sacrifice.
8. a. The soul of a deceased person, spoken of as appearing in a visible form, or otherwise manifesting its presence, to the living. (Now the prevailing sense.)
c1385 CHAUCER L.G.W. 1295 Dido, This night my fadres gost Hath in my sleep so sore me tormented. 1430-40 LYDG. Bochas VI. xi. (1554) 157a, Crye of goostes in cauernes and kaues. 1513 DOUGLAS Æneis VI. xi. 35 Fadir, thi drery gost Sa oft apperand, maid me seik this cost. a1550 Christis Kirke Gr. xviii, He grainit lyk ony gaist. 1599 MASSINGER, etc. Old Law IV. i. (1656) H1b, I'le bury some money before I die, that my ghost May hant thee after~ward. 1602 SHAKES. Ham. I. v. 126 There needs no Ghost my Lord, come from the Graue, to tell vs this. 1691 NORRIS Pract. Disc. 180 We should be no more concerned with the things of this World, than a Ghost is, that only comes to do a Message of Providence. 1742 COLLINS Odes, Fear 60 Ghosts, as cottage-maids believe, Their pebbled beds permitted leave. 1794 MRS. RADCLIFFE Myst. Udolpho xxii, Now you would persuade me you have seen a ghost. 1838-9 HALLAM Hist. Lit. IV. iv. IV. §21. 162 The canonists and casuists have vanished like ghosts at the first daylight. 1897 M. KINGSLEY W. Africa 488 Between five and six weeks..the widow remains in the hut, armed with a good stout stick, as a precaution against the ghost of her husband.
transf. and fig. 1764 FOOTE Patron III. Wks. 1799 I. 358 If I go to the bar, the ghost of this curs'd comedy will follow, and haunt me in Westminster-hall. 1819 G. PEACOCK Flux. & Diff. Calc. 20 To represent a fluxion as the limit of the increment..is to reduce it..in the language of Berkly, to the ghost of a departed entity. 1849 THACKERAY Pendennis xli, The ghost of the dead feeling came back as he mused. 1897 M. KINGSLEY W. Africa 522 In front of us a spear's ghost used to fly across the path about that time in the afternoon.
b. Phrases. to lay a ghost: to cause it to cease appearing. to raise a ghost: to cause it to appear. Both also fig. the ghost walks (Theat. slang): there is money in the treasury, the salaries are forthcoming.
1716, etc. [see LAY v.1 3b]. 1826 [see RAISE v.1 21a]. 1833 R. DYER 9 Yrs. of Actor's Life 53 If I played with applause, it was a matter of indifference whether ‘the ghost’ walked on Saturday or not. 1853 Househ. Words 24 Sep. 77/1 When no salaries are forthcoming on Saturday the ‘ghost doesn't walk’. 1857 HUGHES Tom Brown I. i, Where the last ghost was laid by the parson. 1883 Referee 24 June 3/2 An Actor's Benevolent Fund box placed on the treasurer's desk every day when the ghost walks would get many an odd shilling or six~pence put into it. 1884 tr. Lotze's Metaph. iii. 63 We are fighting here against ghosts raised by ourselves. 1889 J. C. COLEMAN in Barrere & Leland Slang 405 Instead of enquiring whether the treasury is open, they generally say{em}‘Has the ghost walked?’
c. An apparition; a spectre.
1592 SHAKES. Ven. & Ad. 933 ‘Hateful divorce of love’{em}thus chides she Death{em}‘Grim-grinning ghost, earth's worm.’ 1651 HOBBES Leviath. III. xxxiv. 208 A Ghost, or other Idol or Phantasme of the Imagination. 1658 MANTON Exp. Jude 16 We are not to..fight with ghosts and antiquated errors, but to oppose with all earnestness the growing evils of the world. 1727 DE FOE Hist. Appar. v. (1840) 50 An apparition is vulgarly called by us a ghost. 1852 MRS. STOWE Uncle Tom's C. xxxix. 344 They won't come there to inquire after us. If they do, I'll play ghost for them.
{dag}9. A corpse. Obs. (Cf. L. m{amac}nes.)
1567 FENTON Trag. Disc. Bbj, Kissyng every parte of his senceles ghoste. 1593 SHAKES. 2 Hen. VI, III. ii. 161 Oft haue I seene a timely-parted Ghost, Of ashy semblance, meager, pale, and bloodlesse.
10. In allusion to the pale, shadowy and unsubstantial appearance attributed to ghosts. a. Applied to a person in a state of extreme emaciation; ‘a shadow of his former self’.
1590 SIR J. SMYTH Disc. Weapons I. *** iv, Great numbers of miserable and pitiful ghosts, or rather shadowes of men. 1698 FRYER Acc. E. India & P. 218 By their unmerciful bleeding him; insomuch that he seemed to have little more left than would suffice to make him a walking Ghost.
b. A shadowy outline or semblance, an unsubstantial image (of something); hence, a slight trace or vestige, esp. in phrase (not) the ghost of a chance. Cf. SHADOW.
1613 PURCHAS Pilgrimage (1614) 40 That Berosus which we now have, is not so much as the ghost, or carkasse..of that famous Chaldean Author. 1731 A. HILL Adv. Poets Ep. 13 Things, without Wit, or Meaning, and which are not so much, as the Ghosts of good Poetry. 1818 MOORE Fudge Fam. Paris iii. 43 There, Dick, what a breakfast!{em}oh, not like your ghost Of a breakfast in England. a1845 HOOD Workhouse Clock iii, The Sempstress, lean, and weary, and wan, With only the ghosts of garments on. 1851 RUSKIN Stones Ven. (1874) I. x. 121 The arch line is the ghost or skeleton of the arch. 1857 HUGHES Tom Brown II. v, Williams hadn't the ghost of a chance with Tom at wrestling. 1869 Mayne Reid's Mag. June 509 But to secure him, this whale did not give us the ghost of a chance. 1887 RIDER HAGGARD Jess. viii, Her breath rested for a second on his cheek like the ghost of a kiss.
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there's a reason for this beyond the fact that i think this is cool.
ok well maybe there isn't really, but we'll proceed anyway.
ghost is related to geist or spirit, but mostly to the negative/scary connotations of it--it's a kind of inversion of the notion of spirit or soul--so where spirit or soul was maybe higher and more universal (associated with the god-function) ghost is more lower (death) and particular/singular (you give up the ghost, but once upon a time what giving up the ghost referred to was the departure of the soul from it's meat puppet)....so ghost ends up a particularity. made over in the form of a noun, ghost becomes a kind of object, even though if you think about it, it's an anti-object. nonetheless, the characteristics of an object (repeatable essence or set of features that repeat autonomously, much in the way, say, that rock-ness is not entirely dependent on the perception of a social subject) are imputed to "ghost" across the category that has come to be assigned to it.
what "science" in the dilletante sense that it's been thrown around in this thread does is to conflate the properties of category in general with the properties of particular categories---so now "ghost" is an object that can be subjected to whatever arbitrary assemblage of pseudo-scientific statements you feel aesthetically compelled to bring to bear on the question of "proof".
you can track this stuff through the fabulous map that is the oed definition...the binaries, the separations, the rendering-discrete, the associations--the history of the word-object or word-machine "ghost"....
the assumptions that enframe the word-machine also enframe the modes of asking questions about--well what, really? the word-machine as collapsed into a phenomena or the phenomena? it's impossible to say, really, because for the "science" that's been tossed about here, there's no distinction.
o the fun and excitement to be had from the oed....
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a gramophone its corrugated trumpet silver handle
spinning dog. such faithfulness it hear
it make you sick.
-kamau brathwaite
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