phantom

What it means

1. countableuncountableA ghost or apparition.
2. countableuncountableSomething apparently seen, heard, or sensed, but having no physical reality; an image that appears only in the mind; an illusion or delusion.
3. countableuncountablebridgeA placeholder for a pair of players when there are an odd number of pairs playing.

In a sentence

[…] (it was the town's humour to be always gassing of phantom investors who were likely to come any moment and pay a thousand prices for everything) — “[…] Them rich fellers, they don't make no bad breaks with their money. […]”

1899, Stephen Crane, chapter 1, in Twelve O'Clock

Where it comes from

1. Proto-Indo-European*bʰeh₂-
2. Proto-Indo-European*bʰh₂nyéti
3. Proto-Hellenic*pʰáňňō
4. Ancient Greekφαίνω (phaínō)
5. Ancient Greekφᾰντᾰ́ζω (phăntắzō)
6. Ancient Greekφάντασμα (phántasma)
7. Latinphantasma
8. Old Frenchfantosme
9. Middle Englishfantome
10. Englishphantom

Inherited from Middle English fantome, fanteme, from Old French fantosme, fantasme, from Latin phantasma (“an apparition, specter; (in Late Latin also) appearance, image”), from Ancient Greek φάντασμα (phántasma, “phantasm, an appearance, image, apparition, specter”), from φαντάζω (phantázō, “to make visible”). Doublet of phantasm.