[ad. Du. spook, G. spuk (also † spuch), app. of LG. origin, appearing first in MLG. spôk, spoek, spouk, spûk (whence MSw. spook, Da. spog), and older Du. spoocke (Kilian); other modern forms are LG. spôk, spök, WFris. spoek, NFris. spook, spuk, Sw. spöke. No certain cognates have been traced.] A specter, apparition, ghost.
First in American usage, which is illustrated separately in the first set of quotations.
1833. J. K. Paulding, Banks Ohio, III. iii. 40. Pshaw, who ever heard of a spook eating?
a. 1853. ‘Dow, Jr.,’ Patent Serm., iii. 158 (Thornton). There did I see a Spook, sure enough,—milk-white, and moving round.
1878. W. H. Daniels, That Boy, i. The corners of New England which spooks and spirits were the last to leave.
(b.) 1859. Aytoun & Martin, trans. Goethe’s Poems and Ball., Magician’s Apprentice, 102. Broom, avaunt thee! To thy nook there! Lie, thou spook, there!
1873. J. B. Stephens, Black Gin, etc. 11. I am haunted by a spook with oblique eyes and a pigtail.
1891. Tablet, 19 Sept., 446. To what particular order of spook or spectre may he be assigned?
attrib. 1842. Spirit of Times (Philad.), 7 March (Thornton). A-clatterin’ the ghosts of dishes … as tho’ he was bringin’ in a spook-dinner.
1878. A. Aylward, Transvaal of To-Day (1881), 162. I became acquainted with a ‘spooke story,’… which fatally lowered my belief in the supernatural.
1896. Westm. Gaz., 10 Jan., 3/3. An alleged spook-photo.
Hence (as more or less colloquial or nonce-formations) Spookery, Spookic(al a., Spookiness, Spookish, Spookism, Spookological a., Spookology, Spooky a.
1845. Vermont Watchman, 11 April, 1/5. ‘Yes, it is witchcraft, and diabolical *spookery,’ said the Burgomaster, while he displayed the cravat of the nephew or rather the ape.
1893. Athenæum, 18 Feb., 214/1. The writer drags in sundry ‘hauntings’ and ‘spookeries’ of a mild nature.
1894. Contemp. Rev., LXVI. 651. The spookery business could not have saved him.
1887. Sat. Rev., 11 June, 823/2. The new *spookic studies have come to stay. Ibid. (1886), 11 Dec., 773/2. Those who have watched … the recent outburst of *spookical activity.
1886. Athenæum, 25 Dec., 858/2. The great thing in the book is the creation of the *‘spookical’ uncle.
1890. Critic, 4 Jan., 3/2. An air of *spookiness pervades the volume.
1893. Athenæum, 18 March, 343/2. There is some *spookish mystery about a reappearance. Ibid. (1886), 25 Dec., 858/2. By his own rash act he resolved himself into *spookism.
1897. Westm. Gaz., 6 July, 2/3. Everything happened in the most orthodox *spookological manner. Ibid. (1893), 15 July, 5. *Spookology in Vienna.
1883. J. Hawthorne, in Harper’s Mag., Nov., 929/1. Sure ’tis a *spooky place, that grave-yard.
