ghost

thumb|right|An engraving of the Hammersmith Ghost murder case|Hammersmith Ghost appears in Roger Kirby's Wonderful and Scientific Museum, a magazine published in 1804. The "ghost" turned out to be an old local cobbler who used a white sheet to get back at his apprentice for scaring his children.

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The Hammersmith Ghost was a figure that appeared in early 1800s London, initially believed by locals to be a supernatural apparition but later revealed to be an old cobbler wearing a white sheet as a prank against his apprentice. The case became notable enough to be featured in Roger Kirby's 1804 magazine and demonstrates how rumors about ghosts can spread in a community before a rational explanation emerges.

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Unicode character: 👻
Commons category: Ghosts
Commons gallery: Ghost
Wikidata usage instructions: for ghosts from a work of fiction see Q30061299
hashtag: spiritual-beings

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Article

53 sections

Contents

Terminology
Etymology
Usage and synonyms
Typology
Anthropological context
Ghosts and the afterlife
Fear of ghosts
Common attributes
Locale
History
Ancient Near East and Egypt
Classical Antiquity
Archaic and Classical Greece
Roman Empire and Late Antiquity
Middle Ages
European Renaissance to Romanticism
Modern period of western culture
Spiritualist movement
Spiritism
Scientific view
By religion
Judaism
Christianity
Islam
Hinduism
Buddhism
By culture
African folklore
European folklore
South and Southeast Asia
Indian subcontinent
North India
Bengal and East India
Thailand
Tibet
Austronesia
East and Central Asia
China
Japan
Americas
Mexico
United States
Depiction in the arts
Renaissance to Romanticism (1500 to 1840)
Victorian/Edwardian (1840 to 1920)
Modern era (1920 to 1970)
Post-modern (1970–present)
Metaphorical usages
See also
References
Bibliography
Further reading
External links

In folklore, a ghost is the soul or spirit of a dead person or non-human animal that is believed by some people to be able to appear to the living. In ghostlore, descriptions of ghosts vary widely, from an invisible presence to translucent or barely visible wispy shapes to realistic, lifelike forms, whether they resemble humans or animals. The deliberate attempt to contact the spirit of a deceased person is known as necromancy, or in spiritism as a séance. Other terms associated with it are apparition, haunt, haint, phantom, poltergeist, shade, specter, spirit, spook, wraith, demon, and ghoul.