Ghastly
/ˈɡɑːst.li/noun
Extremely unpleasant, horrible, or shockingly bad.
Did you know?Ghastly descends from the same Germanic root as Old English gæst, meaning “spirit” or “ghost,” so its oldest sense was literally something ghost-like, eerie, or terrifying.
Etymological Timeline
Proto-Germanic
PGmc
gaistaz
“spirit, ghost”
Old English
OE
gǣstlic
“spiritual, ghostly, terrifying”
Middle English
ME
ghastly
“terrifying, deathly, dreadful”
16th Century
English
ghastly
“horrifying in appearance or effect”
Modern English
English
ghastly
“extremely unpleasant or shockingly bad”
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