Errand-ghost

Alternative forms

• errandghost, errand ghost

Origin

From Old English ǣrendgāst ("spiritual messenger, angel"), equivalent to errand + ghost.

Full definition of errand-ghost

Noun

1. (rare, historical) A spirit or spiritual messenger; an angel.
• 1900, Eleanor Vere Boyle, Seven gardens and a palace:Their simple directness of character may account for the well-nigh entire absence (as I said before) of all expression of religious hope. "God's Errand-Ghost," the Rider on the Pale Horse, has passed by that way, and one in the house — it may be the most loved of all, — is dead. There is no shirking of that bare truth, no attempt to soften it.
• 2008, Letters To the Ghost In My House:If that was really insulting, please don't be offended. I certainly don't think of you as my errand-ghost. Actually, I think of you as my friend.
• 2012, Yahoo! Canada Answers - Is Jesus God? Did Jesus ever claim to be God?:If Jesus were not God, He would have told lede to not worship Him, just as the errand-ghost in Bring to Lightings did.
2. (rare) Any spirit or ghostly messenger.
• 2005, C. Jürschik y P. García, Interview with Jonathan Boakes:In regard of the previous question – do you also choose empty localizations deliberately? Is this to strenghten the fright for loneliness and silence, the same fright that the strenghten the fright for loneliness and silence, the same fright that the errand ghost of those haunted places feels?
• 2011, Hugo Santander, Poems on America, the world, life and death:Death is not unknown to him, but she has perished And her errand ghost wanders through the night.