wraith
Pluralwraiths
- 1A ghost or specter, especially the image of a person seen just after their death.
Her grandmother swore she saw her brother's wraith at the window on the night he drowned.
Pale as wraiths, the survivors staggered out of the smoke.
Similarghost, specter, spirit, phantom, apparition
Note
Scots gave English the word, first written down in a 1513 translation of the Aeneid, and its origin is uncertain; one guess makes it the Scots word for wrath, which would tie it to writhe and wroth. In comparisons it also describes the living: people pale or worn enough to seem half gone, as when Joyce Carol Oates has figures stumble like wraiths with the impediments of bodies.
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Origin
Borrowed from Middle Scots wraith, first recorded in 1513 in a translation of the Aeneid. Its origin is uncertain; it may be a transferred use of Middle Scots wraith or wrath, “anger; angry,” which would make it a doublet of wrath and wroth.