English Ghost Words

• What are English Ghost Words?

In the vast lexicon of the English language, there exists a peculiar and rarely discussed phenomenon - the ghost word. They are not real words.

Unlike neologisms, which are new words created with purpose, ghost words are linguistic specters, words that appear in a dictionary or other authoritative text by mistake and have no real meaning or etymology. They are the phantom limbs of the language, existing on paper but not in practice, and they reveal a fascinating story about the fallibility of even the most rigorous academic and editorial processes.

A ghost word is typically born from a simple typographical error, a misinterpretation of a manuscript, or a misreading of a note. Once printed, they take on a life of their own, sometimes persisting through multiple editions or even getting picked up by other dictionaries before the mistake is finally discovered and corrected.

English ghost words are a testament to the fascinating and humorous imperfections of the English language. Here some examples of English ghost words ....

Dord The most famous ghost word, dord appeared in the 1934 New International Dictionary, Second Edition. It was listed as a noun meaning destiny but was actually a misreading of a note from an editor that referred to the letter D as an abbreviation for density.

Abacot This word appeared for centuries in dictionaries as a type of hat worn by English kings. It was a misprint of the word bycocket, a legitimate word for a type of hat.

Phantomnation Defined in some dictionaries as an "appearance as of a phantom or an illusion. This word was created when the phrase phantom-nation was transcribed without a hyphen.

Adventine A ghost word found in early dictionaries, including Samuel Johnson's, that was a misprint for the legitimate word adventive.

Morse Sir Walter Scott's novel The Monastery used the verb morse that baffled readers and lexicographers. It was a misreading of the word nurse.

Momblishness Listed in the Oxford English Dictionary as muttering talk, this was a scribal error. It was actually a misreading of ne-m'oubliez-mies, the French plural for forget-me-not flowers, in a poem by Chaucer.

Foupe Defined by Johnson's dictionary meaning to drive with sudden impetuosity, this was a misreading of the word soupe, which was itself a rare form of swoop.

Cairbow This word appeared in an early 20th-century proof of the Oxford English Dictionary in an example sentence. It was simply a misreading of the word caribou, which is a large North American reindeer.

Kime A misprint for the word knives in an 1808 article about Hindu customs. The typo created a ghost word that gained some traction for a short time.

Test entry This is a more modern ghost word, which appeared in a dictionary as a result of an uncorrected test entry during the editorial process. It had no meaning other than a note to the editors.

While English ghost words are eventually discovered and removed from later edition dictionaries, their existence highlights the fallibility of even the most rigorous editorial processes and serves as a charming footnote in the history of the English language.

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