Emily Dickinson Lexicon

ghastly, adj. [gast + lich; NW says Saxon gastilic from gast, spirit < German geist < Dutch geest. In Saxon gast is both ghost and guest from the same radical sense, to move, to rush. Irish gaissem, to flow, English gush, gust.]

1. Death-like; pale; dismal; ghost-like.
2. That which incites feeling of shocking horror and disgust.