Etymology

ghastly

G2H4A1S1T1L1Y4

Today it means: Like a ghost in appearance; death-like; pale; pallid; dismal. Full definition →

Middle English gastly ← Old English gǣstan
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The story

  1. Old English · derived fromgǣstan“to torment, frighten”
  2. Middle English · derived fromgastly
  3. English todayghastly

From a conflation of gastly, from Middle English gastly, from gasten (from Old English gǣstan (“to torment, frighten”)) + -ly, and ghostly (which was also spelt gastlich in Middle English). Equivalent to ghast/gast + -ly. Spelling with gh developed in the 16th century due to the conflation.

Words from the same roots

Old Englishgǣstan all →

gast

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.