Word of the Day

: October 18, 2007

aghast

adjective uh-GAST

What It Means

: struck with terror, amazement, or horror : shocked

aghast in Context

In an effort to impress his date, Adam ordered the most expensive items on the menu, then was aghast when the bill arrived.

Did You Know?

If you are aghast, you might look like you've just seen a ghost, or something similarly shocking. "Aghast" traces back to a Middle English verb, "gasten," meaning "to frighten." "Gasten" (which also gave us "ghastly," meaning "terrible or frightening") comes from "gast," a Middle English spelling of the word "ghost." "Gast" also came to be used in English as a verb meaning "to scare." That verb is now obsolete, but its spirit lives on in words spoken by the character Edmund in Shakespeare's King Lear: "gasted by the noise I made, full suddenly he fled."