What does gast mean?
Gast is an old English word surviving mainly in historical reference works. Its best-known use is as an archaic noun for a ghost, spectre, or apparition, especially in older literature. In that sense it has a strongly traditional, supernatural atmosphere: a gast may be feared, encountered, or said to haunt a place. The word also formerly served as a noun meaning a guest or visitor, a usage now associated with the modern word guest, and as a transitive verb meaning to make aghast or terrify. None of these uses is productive in present-day standard English, so encountering gast usually signals an older text, a quotation, or a deliberate archaism. Although it is no longer ordinary vocabulary, the word is useful for understanding older English and for appreciating the history of words now treated as completely modern.
An archaic word for a ghost, spectre, or apparition; in older usage, it could also mean a guest or visitor.
"The manuscript describes a gast dressed in white and standing beside the river."
The ghost sense is literary and archaic; the guest sense is obsolete.
To make aghast; to fill with fear or alarm.
"The cry from the empty corridor gasted everyone in the hall."
This transitive use is obsolete and survives chiefly in older writing.
The plural is now encountered only in archaic or historical contexts.
"The chronicler names each of the gasts who visited the keep before dawn."
Once the ordinary English word for a ghost, gast survives mainly in dictionaries and older literature, where it sounds ghostly in a way that the familiar word ghost no longer quite does.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of gast
The familiar ghost sense continues Middle English gast, which derives from Old English gāst, meaning spirit or apparition; the related English word ghost displaced it in ordinary use. The now-obsolete sense meaning guest comes from a separate historical line associated with Middle English and Old English giest, the ancestor of modern guest. The spirit word has a close cognate in German Geist, meaning spirit or mind.
How gast is actually used
Gast is no longer part of ordinary modern English. The ghost sense is chiefly literary or historical, while the guest and verb senses are obsolete and may require context for readers to understand them.
Easily confused with gast
Gast is an obsolete word for either a ghost or a guest, whereas modern guest means a visitor or attendee and has a separate historical origin.