ghostly

The story

1. Proto-West Germanic · inherited from*gaistalīk“spiritual”
2. Old English · inherited fromgāstlīċ“spiritual, holy, clerical (not lay), ghastly, ghostly, spectral”
3. Middle English · inherited fromgostly
4. English todayghostly

From Middle English gostly, gastlich, from Old English gāstlīċ (“spiritual, holy, clerical (not lay), ghastly, ghostly, spectral”), from Proto-West Germanic *gaistalīk (“spiritual”), equivalent to ghost + -ly. Cognate with Scots ghaistly, gaistly (“spiritual, ghastly, terrifying”), West Frisian geastlik (“spiritual, clerical, religious”), Dutch geestelijk (“spiritual, clerical, ecclesiastical”), German geistlich (“spiritual, sacred, religious”), Danish geistlig (“ecclesiastical, clerical”).