spook

The story

1. Proto-West Germanic · derived from*spōk
2. Middle Dutch · derived fromspooc“spook, ghost”
3. Dutch · borrowed fromspook“ghost”
4. English todayspook

Borrowed from Dutch spook (“ghost”), from Middle Dutch spooc (“spook, ghost”), ultimately from Proto-West Germanic *spōk. Cognate with Middle Low German spôk, spûk (“apparition, ghost”), Middle High German gespük (“a haunting”), German Spuk, Danish spøge (“to haunt”), Swedish spöke (“ghost”).