Ghost word
Encyclopedia
A ghost word is a meaningless word that came into existence or acceptance, not by being derived through long-standing usage, nor by being coined at need, but only as the result of an error. In the best-known examples such an error will have caused the word to be published in a dictionary
or similarly authoritative reference work
. Alternatively, ghost words sometimes have been published or come into use because of errors in communication, such as misinterpretation, mispronunciation, misreading, or typographical or linguistic
confusion.
Once authoritatively published, a ghost word commonly becomes widely copied and takes a long time to be erased from usage (eg "morse", as discussed in this article); sometimes such a word even comes into permanent usage (eg "scapegoat", also described below).
in his annual address as president of the Philological Society
in 1886. He said in part:
It turned out that "kimes" was a misprint for "knives", but the word gained currency for some time. A more drastic example followed, also citing Skeat's address:
Other examples include:
". However, establishing the true origin often is not possible, partly for lack of documentation, and sometimes through obstructive efforts on the part of pranksters. Consult the etymology of pumpernickel
for example, where what is probably the most popular story rationalising its etymology is apparently a deliberate hoax. "Quiz
" 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.
, a word that has been established since the late 19th century. An example is "beforemath" which is derived from "aftermath". In principle nothing prevents a back-formation from becoming a something like a ghost word, but it is not easy to find examples, and as a rule it would clash with one element in Skeat's definition: "...such words, or rather forms, as have no meaning..."
. More philosophically, one might as well regard them as a source of linguistic challenge and entertainment; probably most of them disappear harmlessly, and those that enter common use might well gain general acceptance simply because they express something comfortably, or otherwise meet a need. The ultimate origins of most words in any language are in essence no more respectable.
Dictionary
A dictionary is a collection of words in one or more specific languages, often listed alphabetically, with usage information, definitions, etymologies, phonetics, pronunciations, and other information; or a book of words in one language with their equivalents in another, also known as a lexicon...
or similarly authoritative reference work
Reference work
A reference work is a compendium of information, usually of a specific type, compiled in a book for ease of reference. That is, the information is intended to be quickly found when needed. Reference works are usually referred to for particular pieces of information, rather than read beginning to end...
. Alternatively, ghost words sometimes have been published or come into use because of errors in communication, such as misinterpretation, mispronunciation, misreading, or typographical or linguistic
Linguistics
Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. Linguistics can be broadly broken into three categories or subfields of study: language form, language meaning, and language in context....
confusion.
Once authoritatively published, a ghost word commonly becomes widely copied and takes a long time to be erased from usage (eg "morse", as discussed in this article); sometimes such a word even comes into permanent usage (eg "scapegoat", also described below).
Origin of the term
The term "Ghost-words" was coined and originally presented in public by Professor Walter William SkeatWalter William Skeat
Walter William Skeat , English philologist, was born in London on the 21st of November 1835, and educated at King's College School , Highgate School, and Christ's College, Cambridge, of which he became a fellow in July 1860. His grandsons include the noted palaeographer T. C...
in his annual address as president of the Philological Society
Philological Society
The Philological Society, or London Philological Society, is the oldest learned society in Great Britain dedicated to the study of language. The society was established in 1842 to "investigate and promote the study and knowledge of the structure, the affinities, and the history of languages"...
in 1886. He said in part:
- Of all the work which the Society has at various times undertaken, none has ever had so much interest for us, collectively, as the New English Dictionary. Dr. Murray, as you will remember, wrote on one occasion a most able article, in order to justify himself in omitting from the Dictionary the word abacot, defined by Webster as "the cap of state formerly used by English kings, wrought into the figure of two crowns." It was rightly and wisely rejected by our Editor on the ground that there is no such word, the alleged form being due to a complete mistake ... due to the blunders of printers or scribes, or to the perfervid imaginations of ignorant or blundering editors. ...
- I propose, therefore, to bring under your notice a few more words of the abacot type; words which will come under our Editor's notice in course of time, and which I have little doubt that he will reject. As it is convenient to have a short name for words of this character, I shall take leave to call them "ghost-words." ... I only allow the title of ghost-words to such words, or rather forms, as have no meaning whatever. (emphasis added in this article)
- ...I can adduce at least two that are somewhat startling. The first is kime... The original ... appeared in the Edinburgh Review for 1808. " The Hindoos... have some very savage customs... Some swing on hooks, some run kimes through their hands..."
It turned out that "kimes" was a misprint for "knives", but the word gained currency for some time. A more drastic example followed, also citing Skeat's address:
- A similar instance occurs in a misprint of a passage of one of Scott's novels, but here there is the further amusing circumstance that the etymology of the false word was settled to the satisfaction of some of the readers. In the majority of editions of The Monastery, we read: ... dost thou so soon morse thoughts of slaughter?
- This word is nothing but a misprint of nurse; but in _Notes and Queries_ two independent correspondents accounted for the word morse etymologically. One explained it as to prime, as when one primes a musket, from O. Fr. amorce, powder for the touchhole (Cotgrave), and the other by to bite (Lat. _mordere_), hence to indulge in biting, stinging or gnawing thoughts of slaughter. The latter writes: "That the word as a misprint should have been printed and read by millions for fifty years without being challenged and altered exceeds the bounds of probability."(italics added in this article) Yet when the original manuscript of Sir Walter Scott was consulted, it was found that the word was there plainly written nurse.
More examples
In his address, Skeat exhibited something like a hundred more specimens that he had collected; we omit them here.Other examples include:
- * The supposed Homeric GreekHomeric GreekHomeric Greek is the form of the Greek language that was used by Homer in the Iliad and Odyssey. It is an archaic version of Ionic Greek, with admixtures from certain other dialects, such as Aeolic Greek. It later served as the basis of Epic Greek, the language of epic poetry, typically in...
word στητη = "woman", which arose thus: In IliadIliadThe Iliad is an epic poem in dactylic hexameters, traditionally attributed to Homer. Set during the Trojan War, the ten-year siege of the city of Troy by a coalition of Greek states, it tells of the battles and events during the weeks of a quarrel between King Agamemnon and the warrior Achilles...
Book 1 line 6 is the phrase διαστητην ερισαντε = "two [= AchillesAchillesIn Greek mythology, Achilles was a Greek hero of the Trojan War, the central character and the greatest warrior of Homer's Iliad.Plato named Achilles the handsomest of the heroes assembled against Troy....
and AgamemnonAgamemnonIn Greek mythology, Agamemnon was the son of King Atreus and Queen Aerope of Mycenae, the brother of Menelaus, the husband of Clytemnestra, and the father of Electra and Orestes. Mythical legends make him the king of Mycenae or Argos, thought to be different names for the same area...
] stood apart making strife", where later someone not familiar with dual numberDual (grammatical number)Dual is a grammatical number that some languages use in addition to singular and plural. When a noun or pronoun appears in dual form, it is interpreted as referring to precisely two of the entities identified by the noun or pronoun...
verb inflections read it as δια στητην ερισαντε = "two making strife because of a στητη", and he guessed that στητη meant the woman BriseisBriseisBrisēís was a mythical queen in Asia Minor at the time of the Trojan War. Her character lies at the center of a dispute between Achilles and Agamemnon that drives the plot of Homer's Iliad.-Story:...
who was the subject of the strife.
- * The placename SarumSarum-Places:*Salisbury, United Kingdom, or New Sarum, a cathedral city in Wiltshire, England*Old Sarum, the ruins of the former settlement in England, 2 miles north of modern Salisbury, UK* Sarum , listed on the NRHP in Maryland...
, which arose by misunderstanding the medieval-type writing abbreviation Sar~ which was intended to mean some early form such as "Sarisberie" (= Salisbury).
- * The most famous example in English (and many other languages whose translations of the bible are based on the same sources) is "scapegoatScapegoatScapegoating is the practice of singling out any party for unmerited negative treatment or blame. Scapegoating may be conducted by individuals against individuals , individuals against groups , groups against individuals , and groups against groups Scapegoating is the practice of singling out any...
" which is a mistranslation of the word AzazelAzazelAzazel or Azazael or Azâzêl is a term used three times in the Hebrew scriptures, and later in Hebrew mythology as the enigmatic name of a character....
(In Hebrew: עזאזל) originated by William TyndaleWilliam TyndaleWilliam Tyndale was an English scholar and translator who became a leading figure in Protestant reformism towards the end of his life. He was influenced by the work of Desiderius Erasmus, who made the Greek New Testament available in Europe, and by Martin Luther...
in his 1530 BibleTyndale BibleThe Tyndale Bible generally refers to the body of biblical translations by William Tyndale. Tyndale’s Bible is credited with being the first English translation to work directly from Hebrew and Greek texts. Furthermore it was the first English biblical translation that was mass produced as a result...
, and appropriated in the King James Version of the Bible (Leviticus chapter 16) in 1611. Confounded by the word, Tyndale had interpreted Azazel as ez ozel – literally, "the goat that departs"; hence "(e)scape goat." According to the Talmud, Yoma 67b, Azazel is a contraction of az (harsh) and eil (strong) and refers to the most rugged of mountains. This identification is supported by RashiRashiShlomo Yitzhaki , or in Latin Salomon Isaacides, and today generally known by the acronym Rashi , was a medieval French rabbi famed as the author of a comprehensive commentary on the Talmud, as well as a comprehensive commentary on the Tanakh...
, the great Medieval grammarian, who interpreted Azazel to be the name of a specific mountain or cliff over which the goat was driven. According to R.H. Charles, it was called so for its reputation as the holding place of the fallen angel of the same name. Modern scholars generally reject Tyndale's interpretation and favor one related to a fallen angel/evil demon interpretation. Today in modern HebrewHebrew languageHebrew is a Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Culturally, is it considered by Jews and other religious groups as the language of the Jewish people, though other Jewish languages had originated among diaspora Jews, and the Hebrew language is also used by non-Jewish groups, such...
Azazel is used derogatorily, as in lekh la-Azazel ("go to Azazel"), as in "go to hellHellIn many religious traditions, a hell is a place of suffering and punishment in the afterlife. Religions with a linear divine history often depict hells as endless. Religions with a cyclic history often depict a hell as an intermediary period between incarnations...
".
More difficult 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, for example "OkayOkay
"Okay" is a colloquial English word denoting approval, acceptance, agreement, assent, or acknowledgment. "Okay" has frequently turned up as a loanword in many other languages...
". However, establishing the true origin often is not possible, partly for lack of documentation, and sometimes through obstructive efforts on the part of pranksters. Consult the etymology of pumpernickel
Pumpernickel
Pumpernickel is a type of very heavy, slightly sweet rye bread traditionally made with coarsely ground rye. It is often made with a combination of rye flour and whole rye berries. It has been long associated with the Westphalia region of Germany. The first written mention of the black bread of...
for example, where what is probably the most popular story rationalising its etymology is apparently a deliberate hoax. "Quiz
Quiz
A quiz is a form of game or mind sport in which the players attempt to answer questions correctly. In some countries, a quiz is also a brief assessment used in education and similar fields to measure growth in knowledge, abilities, and/or skills.Quizzes are usually scored in points and many...
" also has been associated with apparently deliberate "false etymology
False etymology
Folk etymology is change in a word or phrase over time resulting from the replacement of an unfamiliar form by a more familiar one. Unanalyzable borrowings from foreign languages, like asparagus, or old compounds such as samblind which have lost their iconic motivation are...
". All these words and many more have remained in common usage, but they may well have been ghost words in origin.
Incorrect use of the term ghost word
A recent, incorrect use of the term "ghost word" refers to coining a new word implied logically from a real word, often etymologically incorrectly. The correct term is back-formationBack-formation
In etymology, back-formation is the process of creating a new lexeme, usually by removing actual or supposed affixes. The resulting neologism is called a back-formation, a term coined by James Murray in 1889...
, a word that has been established since the late 19th century. An example is "beforemath" which is derived from "aftermath". In principle nothing prevents a back-formation from becoming a something like a ghost word, but it is not easy to find examples, and as a rule it would clash with one element in Skeat's definition: "...such words, or rather forms, as have no meaning..."
Pernicious effects of ghost words
Ghost words and similar errors and creations, certainly including back-formations, usually are at least troublesome as a source of neologisms and similar linguistic noiseNoise
In common use, the word noise means any unwanted sound. In both analog and digital electronics, noise is random unwanted perturbation to a wanted signal; it is called noise as a generalisation of the acoustic noise heard when listening to a weak radio transmission with significant electrical noise...
. More philosophically, one might as well regard them as a source of linguistic challenge and entertainment; probably most of them disappear harmlessly, and those that enter common use might well gain general acceptance simply because they express something comfortably, or otherwise meet a need. The ultimate origins of most words in any language are in essence no more respectable.
See also
- Corruption (linguistics)
- DordDordDord is a notable error in lexicography, an accidental creation, or ghost word, of the G. and C. Merriam Company's staff included in the second edition of its New International Dictionary, in which the term is defined as "density"....
- False etymologyFalse etymologyFolk etymology is change in a word or phrase over time resulting from the replacement of an unfamiliar form by a more familiar one. Unanalyzable borrowings from foreign languages, like asparagus, or old compounds such as samblind which have lost their iconic motivation are...
- Folk etymology
- Howler (error)Howler (error)Howler, in the main sense this article deals with, is a glaring blunder, typically an amusing one.The word howler is variously used. Some usages are seen as correct English, others as slang...
- Nihilartikel