English
ghost population
From ghost + population.
Formed from ghost + population
Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰéysd-
…
Proto-Germanic *gaistaz ‘terror’
Proto-West Germanic *gaist ‘ghost’
Old English gāst ‘breath’
Middle English gost ‘a spiritual being’
English ghost
Today it means
noun A population that is inferred to have existed based on data that has been reconstructed rather than on direct sampling.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / ghost population