Scribal abbreviation by "contraction" and was mostly a Christian usage for sacred words, Nomina Sacra; non-Christian sigla usage usually limited the number of letters the abbreviation comprised and omitted no intermediate letter. One practice was rendering an overused, formulaic phrase only as a siglum: DM for "Dis Manibus" ("Dedicated to the Manes"); IHS from the first three letters of "ΙΗΣΟΥΣ"; and RIP for "requiescat in pace" ("Rest in Peace") because the long-form written usage of the abbreviated phrase, by itself, was rare. According to Trabe, these abbreviations are not really meant to lighten the burden of the scribe but rather to shroud
Ghosts in English-speaking cultures "apparition". The term "shade" in classical mythology translates Greek σκιά, or Latin "umbra", in reference to the notion of spirits in the Greek underworld. "Haint" is a synonym for ghost used in regional English of the southern United States, and the "haint tale" is a common feature of southern oral and literary tradition. The term "poltergeist" is a German word, literally a "noisy ghost," for a spirit said to manifest itself by invisibly moving and influencing objects. "Wraith" is a Scots word for "ghost, spectre, apparition." It came to be used in Scottish Romanticist literature, and acquired the more general