460: ghost Mar 12, 2016

Nietzsche's famous work "die Geburt der Tragödie: aus dem Geiste der Musik", is often translated as "The Birth of Tragedy: out of the Spirit of Music". In this instance, 'Geist(e)' would mean "spirit". In the word 'Poltergeist', 'poltern' means "to cause a disturbance", and 'Geist', would mean 'ghost', as to express the sense of evil which 'spirit' just can't in English. This kind of German-ambiguity existed back in Old English, when the word 'gāst' meant 'spirit' or 'ghost' or even 'soul'. People think that the silent 'h' was adopted by Caxton from Flemish spelling style. 
More on Caxton tomorrow.