Are you afraid of ghosts? Did you know that ghosts can lurk not only in haunted mansions and dark comers, but also inside dictionaries?
Yes, you read that right. Ghost words are words that have entered into the dictionary by a human error rather than normal linguistic transmission.
They are usually a result of a misprint or an erroneous reading of a manuscript.
The Oxford English Dictionary defines a ghost word as “a word recorded in a dictionary or other reference work which is not actually used.”
Here are some ghost words that might be lurking inside your dictionary:
**Abacot is a ghost word that arose through a series of misreadings. The word first appeared in the second edition of “Holisnhed’s Chronicles” in 1587. It found its way into every major dictionary. Only 300 years later was it discovered that the word was a misprint of ‘bycoket’, meaning a cap or head-dress.
**Morse: The word ‘morse’ as a noun became popular after it appeared in Sir Walter Scott’s 1820 novel, “The Monastery”. However, ‘morse’ mysteriously appeared as a verb in dictionaries. Was it Morse code? Not really, it was just a printing mistake, putting ‘morse’ instead of ‘nurse’.
**Momblishness: Though the word sounds similar to mumble, it turned out that momblish was actually a typographical error. The actual word was ‘ne-m’oublie-pas’. French for “don’t forget me”.
**Cairbow: Cairbow was mentioned in an early 20th century draft of the Oxford English Dictionary. The new word puzzled the editors: What was cairbow? A new type of rainbow or a polar creature? Well, none of the above. It turned out that cairbow was just a misreading of caribou.
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