Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A word that has come into a dictionary, grammar, or other scholarly work as a result of a misreading or misinterpretation, as by mistaking a typographical error for an actual word.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun A
fictitious orerroneous word,originally meaningless , that has beenpublished in adictionary orsimilarly authoritative reference book, or has been listed as genuine, generally as the result ofmisinterpretation or atypographical error.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun a word form that has entered the language through the perpetuation of an error
Etymologies
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Examples
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chained_bear commented on the word ghost word
A word that exists in Wordie but appears on 0 lists. May or may not have comments. See also zombie, casper, and conversation on features.
November 22, 2007
swordnik commented on the word ghost word
E.g. "gofish" misread for "goofish" (medial S error?)
See here for more of Skeat's original ghost words: http://books.google.com/books?id=ZqQLqhkC8gkC&pg=PA180&lpg=PA180&dq=skeat+%22ghost+words%22&source=bl&ots=3zlYg0Qtqg&sig=mNkw_oKwfVIqJ9Xx25hFtI9zyQ4&hl=en&ei=c3gkTq6tCOrmiALOhfnLAw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=3&ved=0CCcQ6AEwAg#v=onepage&q=skeat%20%22ghost%20words%22&f=false
July 18, 2011