wraith

Definition

A ghost or specter, especially a person's likeness seen just after their death.

Etymology

Borrowed from Middle Scots wraith, first attested in 1513 in a translation of the Aeneid. The word has no certain etymology; it may be a transferred use of Middle Scots wraith, wrath (nominally "anger, rage", adjectivally "angry, wrathful"), thus connecting it to writhe and making it doublet of wrath and wroth. Century Dictionary compares Old Norse vǫrðr (“guardian”); Klein compares Irish arrachd (“apparition”), which is related to riochd (“shape, likeness”).

Example Sentences

• "We might indeed have been the wraiths of the departed dead upon the dead sea of that dying planet for all the sound or sign we made in passing."
• "Like wraiths with the impediments of bodies they stumbled in the direction of Salthill faces."