HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

A ghost word is a word published in a dictionary or similarly authoritative reference work even though it had not previously had any meaning or been used intentionally. A ghost word generally originates from a typographical or linguistic error, taken as an unfamiliar word by readers. Once authoritatively published, a ghost word occasionally may be copied widely and enter legitimate usage, or it may eventually be expunged by more fastidious lexicographers.


Origin

The term was coined by Professor Walter William Skeat in his annual address as president of the Philological Society in 1886:Skeat, Walter William; Presidential address on 'Ghost-Words' in: 'Transactions of the Philological Society, 1885-7, pages 343-374'; Published for the society by Trübner & Co., Ludgate Hill, London, 1887. May be downloaded at: https://archive.org/details/transact188500philuoft It turned out that "kimes" was a misprint for "knives", but the word gained currency for some time. A more drastic example followed, also cited in Skeat's address:Wheatley, Henry Benjamin; Literary Blunders; A Chapter in the “History of Human Error”; Publisher: Elliot Stock, London 1893 One edition of ''The Monastery'' containing the misprint was published by the Edinburgh University Press in 1820.


More examples

In his address, Skeat exhibited about 100 more specimens that he had collected. Other examples include: *The supposed
Homeric Greek Homeric Greek is the form of the Greek language that was used by Homer in the '' Iliad'', '' Odyssey'', and Homeric Hymns. It is a literary dialect of Ancient Greek consisting mainly of Ionic, with some Aeolic forms, a few from Arcadocypriot, ...
word (') = "woman", which arose thus: In '' Iliad'' Book 1 line 6 is the phrase (') = "two (i.e. Achilles and
Agamemnon In Greek mythology, Agamemnon (; grc-gre, Ἀγαμέμνων ''Agamémnōn'') was a king of Mycenae who commanded the Greeks during the Trojan War. He was the son, or grandson, of King Atreus and Queen Aerope, the brother of Menelaus, the hus ...
) stood apart making strife". However someone unfamiliar with dual number verb inflections read it as (') = "two making strife because of a ''stētē''", and they guessed that ' meant the woman
Briseis Briseis (; grc, Βρῑσηΐς ''Brīsēís'', ) ("daughter of Briseus"), also known as Hippodameia (, ), is a significant character in the ''Iliad''. Her role as a status symbol is at the heart of the dispute between Achilles and Agamemnon ...
who was the subject of the strife, influenced by the fact that nouns ending with
eta Eta (uppercase , lowercase ; grc, ἦτα ''ē̂ta'' or ell, ήτα ''ita'' ) is the seventh letter of the Greek alphabet, representing the close front unrounded vowel . Originally denoting the voiceless glottal fricative in most dialects, ...
are usually feminine. *The placename Sarum, which arose by misunderstanding of the abbreviation Sar~ used in a medieval manuscript to mean some early form such as "Sarisberie" (= Salisbury). *As an example of an editing mistake, "
dord The word ''dord'' is a dictionary error in lexicography. It was accidentally created, as a ghost word, by the staff of G. and C. Merriam Company (now part of Merriam-Webster) in the '' New International Dictionary'', second edition (1934). That ...
" was defined as a noun meaning ''density'' (mass per unit volume). When the second edition of
Webster's New International Dictionary ''Webster's Dictionary'' is any of the English language dictionaries edited in the early 19th century by American lexicographer Noah Webster (1758–1843), as well as numerous related or unrelated dictionaries that have adopted the Webster's n ...
was being prepared, an index card that read "D or d" with reference to the word "density" was incorrectly misfiled as a word instead of an abbreviation. The entry existed in more than one printing from 1934 to 1947. *''A Concise Dictionary of Pronunciation'' () accidentally included the nonexistent word ''testentry'' (evidently a feature of work-in-progress), with spurious British and US pronunciations as though it rhymed with ''pedantry''. *The ''OED'' explains the ghost word ''phantomnation'' as "Appearance of a phantom; illusion. Error for ''phantom nation''".
Alexander Pope Alexander Pope (21 May 1688 O.S. – 30 May 1744) was an English poet, translator, and satirist of the Enlightenment era who is considered one of the most prominent English poets of the early 18th century. An exponent of Augustan literature, ...
's (1725) translation of the '' Odyssey'' originally said, "The Phantome-nations of the dead".
Richard Paul Jodrell Richard Paul Jodrell (13 November 1745 – 26 January 1831) was a classical scholar and playwright. Life His parents were Paul Jodrell, Solicitor General to Frederick Prince of Wales, and his wife Elizabeth, daughter of Richard Warner, of Nor ...
's (1820) ''Philology of the English Language'', which omitted hyphens from compounds, entered it as one word, "Phantomnation, a multitude of spectres". Lexicographers copied this error into various dictionaries, such as, "Phantomnation, illusion. Pope." (
Worcester Worcester may refer to: Places United Kingdom * Worcester, England, a city and the county town of Worcestershire in England ** Worcester (UK Parliament constituency), an area represented by a Member of Parliament * Worcester Park, London, Engla ...
, 1860, ''Philology of the English Language''), and "Phantomnation, appearance as of a phantom; illusion. (Obs. and rare.) Pope." (
Webster Webster may refer to: People *Webster (surname), including a list of people with the surname *Webster (given name), including a list of people with the given name Places Canada *Webster, Alberta * Webster's Falls, Hamilton, Ontario United Stat ...
, 1864, ''An American dictionary of the English language''). Available at

/ref> *The Japanese word ''kusege'' (, compounding ''kuse'' "habit; vice" and ''ke'' "hair", "frizzy hair") was mistranslated as "vicious hair" in the authoritative ''
Kenkyūsha's New Japanese-English Dictionary First published in 1918, has long been the largest and most authoritative Japanese-English dictionary. Translators, scholars, and specialists who use the Japanese language affectionately refer to this dictionary as the ''Green Goddess'' or ('' ...
'' from the first edition (1918) to the fourth (1974), and corrected in the fifth edition (2003) "twisted inky, frizzyhair; hair that stands up". This phantom word was not merely an unnoticed lexicographical error, generations of dictionary users copied the mistake. For example, a Tokyo hospital of cosmetic surgery had a long-running
display advertisement Digital display advertising is online graphic advertising through banners, text, images, video, and audio. The main purpose of digital display advertising is to post company ads on third-party websites. A display ad is usually interactive (i.e. ...
in the Asian edition of '' Newsweek'' that read, "Kinky or vicious hair may be changed to a lovely, glossy hair" . This hair-straightening ad was jokingly used in the "Kinky Vicious" title of a 2011 Hong Kong
iPhoneography A camera phone is a mobile phone which is able to capture photographs and often record video using one or more built-in digital cameras. It can also send the resulting image wirelessly and conveniently. The first commercial phone with color ...
photo exhibition. * The
JIS X 0208 JIS X 0208 is a 2-byte character set specified as a Japanese Industrial Standard, containing 6879 graphic characters suitable for writing text, place names, personal names, and so forth in the Japanese language. The official title of the current ...
standard, the most widespread system to handle Japanese language with computers since 1978, has entries for 12 kanji that have no known use and were probably included by mistake (for example ). They are called (yūrei moji, " ghost characters") and are still supported by most computer systems (see: JIS X 0208#Kanji from unknown sources). * Hsigo, an apparently erroneous output from
optical character recognition Optical character recognition or optical character reader (OCR) is the electronic or mechanical conversion of images of typed, handwritten or printed text into machine-encoded text, whether from a scanned document, a photo of a document, a sc ...
software for "hsiao", a creature from Chinese mythology. The typographical error appeared in several limited-audience publications but spread around the
World Wide Web The World Wide Web (WWW), commonly known as the Web, is an information system enabling documents and other web resources to be accessed over the Internet. Documents and downloadable media are made available to the network through web se ...
after the creation of a Wikipedia article about the term (which has since been corrected), due to its numerous mirrors and forks. * In his book '' Beyond Language: Adventures in Word and Thought'',
Dmitri Borgmann Dmitri Alfred Borgmann (October 22, 1927 – December 7, 1985) was a German-American author best known for his work in recreational linguistics. Early life Borgmann was born on October 22, 1927, in Berlin, Germany, to Hans and Lisa Borgmann. ...
shows how ''feamyng'', a purported
collective noun In linguistics, a collective noun is a word referring to a collection of things taken as a whole. Most collective nouns in everyday speech are not specific to one kind of thing. For example, the collective noun "group" can be applied to people (" ...
for
ferret The ferret (''Mustela furo'') is a small, domesticated species belonging to the family Mustelidae. The ferret is most likely a domesticated form of the wild European polecat (''Mustela putorius''), evidenced by their interfertility. Other must ...
s which appeared in several dictionaries, is actually the result of a centuries-long chain of typographical or misread-handwriting errors (from BUSYNESS to BESYNESS to FESYNES to FESNYNG to FEAMYNG). * In the
Irish language Irish ( Standard Irish: ), also known as Gaelic, is a Goidelic language of the Insular Celtic branch of the Celtic language family, which is a part of the Indo-European language family. Irish is indigenous to the island of Ireland and wa ...
, the word ("inspector") was invented by the scholar Tadhg Ua Neachtain, who misread (, like modern ) in
Edward Lhuyd Edward Lhuyd FRS (; occasionally written Llwyd in line with modern Welsh orthography, 1660 – 30 June 1709) was a Welsh naturalist, botanist, linguist, geographer and antiquary. He is also named in a Latinate form as Eduardus Luidius. Lif ...
's ''Archaeologia Britannica'' as , and so constructed the verbal forms , , etc. from it.


Speculative examples

Many neologisms, including those that eventually develop into established usages, are of obscure origin, and some might well have originated as ghost words through illiteracy, such as the term "
okay ''OK'' (spelling variations include ''okay'', ''O.K.'', ''ok'' and ''Ok'') is an English word (originating in American English) denoting approval, acceptance, agreement, assent, acknowledgment, or a sign of indifference. ''OK'' is frequently ...
". However, establishing the true origin often is not possible, partly for lack of documentation, and sometimes through obstructive efforts on the part of pranksters. The most popular etymology of the word
pumpernickel Pumpernickel (; ) is a typically heavy, slightly sweet rye bread traditionally made with sourdough starter and coarsely ground rye. It is sometimes made with a combination of rye flour and whole rye grains ("rye berries"). At one time it was ...
bread - that Napoleon described it as "C'est pain pour Nicole!", being only fit for his horse - is thought to be a deliberate hoax. "
Quiz A quiz is a form of game or mind sport in which players attempt to answer questions correctly on one or several specific topics. Quizzes can be used as a brief assessment in education and similar fields to measure growth in knowledge, abilities ...
" also has been associated with apparently deliberate false etymology. All these words and many more have remained in common usage, but they may well have been ghost words in origin. Available at

/ref>


Distinguished from back-formation

A recent, incorrect use of the term "ghost word" refers to coining a new word inferred from a real word by falsely applying an etymological rule. The correct term for such a Derivation (linguistics), derivation is
back-formation In etymology, back-formation is the process or result of creating a new word via inflection, typically by removing or substituting actual or supposed affixes from a lexical item, in a way that expands the number of lexemes associated with the c ...
, a word that has been established since the late 19th century. An example is "beforemath" derived from "
aftermath Aftermath may refer to: Companies * Aftermath (comics), an imprint of Devil's Due Publishing * Aftermath Entertainment, an American record label founded by Dr. Dre * Aftermath Media, an American multimedia company * Aftermath Services, an Americ ...
", having an understandable meaning but not a commonly accepted word. A back-formation cannot become a ghost word; as a rule it would clash with Skeat's precise definition, which requires that the word forms have "no meaning".


See also

*
Corruption (linguistics) Language change is variation over time in a language's features. It is studied in several subfields of linguistics: historical linguistics, sociolinguistics, and evolutionary linguistics. Traditional theories of historical linguistics identif ...
*
Dord The word ''dord'' is a dictionary error in lexicography. It was accidentally created, as a ghost word, by the staff of G. and C. Merriam Company (now part of Merriam-Webster) in the '' New International Dictionary'', second edition (1934). That ...
* False etymology * Fictitious entry * Funistrada, a fictional food name, created as a control item in a survey * Folk etymology *
Trap street In cartography, a trap street is a fictitious entry in the form of a misrepresented street on a map, often outside the area the map nominally covers, for the purpose of "trapping" potential plagiarists of the map who, if caught, would be unable t ...
 – a fictitious street inserted into maps for copyright protection


References


External links

{{wiktionary, Appendix:English dictionary-only terms
Transactions of the Philological Society
Linguistic error Lexis (linguistics) Vocabulary