haint

noun

ˈhānt 

plural haints

: the soul of a dead person and especially one that is mischievous or mean

A haint is a restless ghost who has not left the world, but has remained behind to haunt the living with trickery that is often harmless, but sometimes more sinister in nature.

—Katie Carman

African-American folklore contends that haints can take any form at will, from everyday objects to … fantastic creatures …

—Lynne Adele

Ever hear the tale of Montrose, the 8-foot tall haint who hung out at a spooky, moss-draped … cemetery in the late 1950s and early 1960s, scaring the daylights out of those who ventured there?

—Dwight Dana

Word History

Etymology

variant of haunt entry 2 in sense "ghost"

Note: Compare the entry for haunt in the Dictionary of American Regional English. In reference to forms the editors cite H. Kurath and R. McDavid, The Pronunciation of English in the Atlantic States (Ann Arbor, 1961), p. 161: "…haunted, with the vowel /e/ of eight, occurs in parts of the Carolinas, in Georgia, and in West Virginia."

First Known Use

1912, in the meaning defined above