Sense file
How the sense moved
The archive follows the dated record first, then reads the social or rhetorical pressure that hardened, softened, narrowed, or reversed the word.
Older meaning
Breath, spirit, soul, life, or supernatural being.
Modern meaning
A spirit of the dead; also to vanish from communication without explanation.
Research lens
A supernatural word that becomes a modern social behavior by way of absence and invisibility.
Meaning trail
Root
spirit or breath
The word's older range included life and supernatural presence.
Bridge
hidden worker or shadow
Ghostwriting moved the word into invisibility.
Now
sudden social disappearance
Digital speech turned absence into a verb.