wraith

Meanings

1. A ghost or specter, especially a person's likeness seen just after their death.

Etymology

Borrowed from Middle Scots wraith, first attested in 1513 in a translation of the Aeneid. The word has no certain etymology; it may be a transferred use of Middle Scots wraith, wrath (nominally "anger, rage", adjectivally "angry, wrathful"), thus connecting it to writhe and making it a doublet of wrath and wroth. Century Dictionary compares Old Norse vǫrðr (“guardian”); Klein compares Irish arracht (“apparition”), which is related to riocht (“shape, likeness”).