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spook

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

See also: Spook

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Dutch spook (“ghost”), from Middle Dutch spooc (“spook, ghost”). Cognate with Middle Low German spôk, spûk (“apparition, ghost”), Middle High German gespük (“a haunting”), German Spuk, Danish spøge (“to haunt”), Swedish spöke (“ghost”).

Pronunciation

Noun

spook (plural spooks)

  1. (informal) A ghost or phantom.
    Synonyms: see Thesaurus:ghost
    The building was haunted by a couple of spooks.
  2. A hobgoblin. (Can we verify(+) this sense?)
  3. (informal) A scare or fright.
    The big spider gave me a spook.
  4. (espionage, slang) An undercover agent, spy, or intelligence analyst.
    • 2009 July 24, “Spies like them”, in BBC News Magazine:
      From Ian Fleming to John Le Carre - authors have long been fascinated by the world of espionage. But, asks the BBC’s Gordon Corera, what do real life spooks make of fictional spies?
    • 2012 October 13, “Huawei and ZTE: Put on hold”, in The Economist‎:
      The congressional study frets that Huawei’s and ZTE’s products could be used as Trojan horses by Chinese spooks.
  5. (slang, dated, offensive, ethnic slur) A black person.
    • 1976, Paul Schrader, Taxi Driver, spoken by Travis Bickle (Robert De Niro):
      Some won't take spooks—hell, don't make no difference to me.
    • 2002 February, Don Spears, Playing for Keeps‎, Los Angeles: Milligan Books, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 179:
      " […] Dryades Street and that whole uptown neighborhood is gonna be worth a fortune once the white people take it back from you spooks and develop it. […] "
  6. (philosophy) A metaphysical manifestation; an artificial distinction or construct.
    • 1845, Max Stirner, translated by Steven T. Byington, Der Einzige und sein Eigentum; republished as The Ego and His Own, Dover, 2005:
      He who is infatuated with Man leaves persons out of account so far as that infatuation extends, and floats in an ideal, sacred interest. Man, you see, is not a person, but an ideal, a spook.
  7. (US, slang, medicine) A psychiatrist.
    • 1975, Robert O. Pasnau, Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry, page 124:
      Commonly, the surgeons view nonsurgeons with disdain. The most disdain is directed toward the “shrinks” or the “spooks,” as the psychiatrists are called.
  8. (blackjack, slang) A player who engages in hole carding by attempting to glimpse the dealer's hole card when the dealer checks under an ace or a 10 to see if a blackjack is present.

Translations

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Translations to be checked

Verb

spook (third-person singular simple present spooks, present participle spooking, simple past and past participle spooked)

  1. (transitive) To frighten or make nervous (especially by startling).
    The hunters were spooked when the black cat crossed their path. The movement in the bushes spooked the deer and they ran.
    • 2022 August 10, “Stop & Examine”, in RAIL, number 963, page 71:
      As that was happening, an East Midlands train came through at 90mph. George [a Labrador] was spooked as the train went past him and ran backwards across the neighbouring slow lines and off towards the sidings.
  2. (intransitive) To become frightened (by something startling).
    The deer spooked at the sound of the dogs.
  3. (transitive) To haunt.

Derived terms

Translations

Further reading

Anagrams

Afrikaans

Etymology

From Dutch spook, from Middle Dutch spoke, spooc, from Proto-Germanic *spōk.

Pronunciation

Noun

spook (plural spoke, diminutive spokie)

  1. ghost, phantom

Descendants

  • → Northern Ndebele: isipoko
  • → Xhosa: isiporho
  • → Zulu: isipoki


Dutch

Pronunciation

Etymology 1

From Middle Dutch spoke, spooc, from spoke, spoocke, spoicke (“wizardry, witchcraft”), from Proto-Germanic *spōk. Further etymology unclear. Cognate with Middle Low German spôk, Low German spôk, Middle High German Spuch, and German Spuk.

Noun

spook n (plural spoken, diminutive spookje n)

  1. phantom, ghost
    Geloof je in spoken? ― Do you believe in ghosts?
  2. spectre, horror, terror
    het spook van de oorlog ― the horror of war
  3. an imaginary horror, conceptual nightmare
  4. an annoying and intolerable woman
Synonyms
Derived terms
Descendants
  • Afrikaans: spook
  • Negerhollands: spook
  • → English: spook
  • → Papiamentu: spoki, spooki

Etymology 2

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

Verb

spook

  1. inflection of spoken:
    1. first-person singular present indicative
    2. (in case of inversion) second-person singular present indicative
    3. imperative

Middle English

Noun

spook

  1. Alternative form of spoke

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