spook, verb

/spʊk//spuək/
Origin:
Afrikaans.
1.
a. intransitive. Of a place: to be haunted.
1873 Cape Monthly Mag. VII. 292It is a very common thing for it to be said that at some particular spot on a road, generally a dark, lonely drift, or near a place where a murder has been committed, that it ‘spooks.’
1929 J.G. Van Alphen Jan Venter 265I do believe that the thief must be a spook. Does it spook on your farm?
b. transitive. To haunt (a person or place); to frighten (someone).
Note:
Also in U.S. English.
1883 O.E.A. Schreiner Story of Afr. Farm 12Three nights ago she hears a rustling and a grunting behind the pantry door, and knew it was your father coming to ‘spook’ her.
1939 J.F. Bense Dict. of Low-Dutch Element in Eng. Vocab. 542Spook vb. 1883...From the earliest record in N.E.D. — see quot. 1883 — it seems to have its origin in South Africa.
1965 C. Van Heyningen Orange Days 244Unless they came, I would die from working alone in the garden as I was now old, and then I could come back and ‘spook’ them.
1977 F.G. Butler Karoo Morning 244One night he begged me to come to his room because he was being frightened by noises. He was being spooked.
1980 Cape Times 16 Jan. 11Spooking the baddies out of the troop.
1982 Cape Times 23 Dec. 3No arrests had been made, but residents felt ‘threatened and spooked’ by the police presence.
1984 Sunday Times 1 Apr. 3Widow spooked by her husband’s ‘ghost’ for 20c...She said her dead husband’s ghost kept pestering her for 20c.
1986 D. Case Love, David 92I woke up feeling very frightened in the dark night. I had goosebumps all over me and thought that Stumpy had come to ‘spook’ me.
1990 Sunday Times 12 Aug. 5Ghosts aren’t spooking us, says graveyard Jan.
2. transitive. Army slang. To clear (an area) of mines. See also spook noun sense 2.
1979 National Serviceman, InformantI tell you they kla you on if you ride on a road that hasn’t been spooked.
to be haunted.
To haunt (a person or place); to frighten (someone).
To clear (an area) of mines.
Derivatives:
Hence (sense 1 a) spooked  participial adjective, haunted; afraid.
1931 G. Beet Grand Old Days 87The natives came to believe that the place was ‘spooked,’ or haunted.
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18731990

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spooked

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spook, nounn.spoor, nounn.
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