Do you know what the word dord means? It appeared in 1934 in the second edition of Merriam-Webster’s New International Dictionary with the meaning of “density.” But it is not used, and it doesn’t mean anything at all. It is a “ghost word,” a dictionary mistake — usually the result of a misreading or printer error, but occasionally put into the dictionary on purpose.
In the case of dord, it was a misreading of “D or d, cont./density,” really meaning that the abbreviation for density could be either an uppercase or a lowercase D. It was removed from the dictionary in 1947.
The term ghost word was coined in 1886 by Professor Walter William Skeat, founder of the English Spelling Society. He spotted a couple of other ghost words that were actually misspellings: kimes instead of knives and morse instead of nurse.
When these dictionary errors are spotted, they are usually removed.
Here are a few other known ghost words:
Abocot – A misprint of bycocket. A bycocket is a 15th-century hat for men and women with a high crown, wide brim, and pointed front. The incorrect spelling appeared in Edward Hall’s Chronicles in 1550 and underwent an evolution, starting out as abococke and ending up as the ghost word abacot.
Syllabus – A ghost word that caught on and is actually commonly used. Its meaning as the outline for an academic course is well known. However, it got its start as a misreading of the Greek word sittybas.
Phantomnation – Sounds like a large rock concert. Its definition is given as “the appearance of a phantom.” It came from a translation of Homer’s Odyssey into English. A Greek word meaning “tribes of the dead” was translated into phantom-nations in English. Then, a dictionary editor removed the hyphen…
Esquivalence – This word appeared in the New Oxford American Dictionary in 2001. On purpose. Defined as “the deliberate shirking of responsibility,” it was a copyright trap, put in there to catch anyone reprinting the dictionary without permission.
So nothing is perfect. Not even the dictionary.
Leave a Reply