ghost word
noun
a word that has come into existence by error rather than by normal linguistic transmission, as through the mistaken reading of a manuscript, a scribal error, or a misprint.
VIDEO FOR GHOST WORD
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Ghost words haunt dictionaries like ours because they came into existence by error like a mistaken reading of a manuscript, a scribal error, or a misprint ... eerie.
Origin of ghost word
First recorded in 1885–90
Words nearby ghost word
ghost net,
ghost prisoner,
ghost shrimp,
ghost story,
ghost town,
ghost word,
ghost writer,
ghost-weed,
ghostfish,
ghosting,
ghostly
Example sentences from the Web for ghost word
But it is unrecorded in literature and labours under the suspicion of being a ghost-word.
The Romance of Words (4th ed.) |Ernest Weekley
British Dictionary definitions for ghost word
ghost word
noun
a word that has entered the language through the perpetuation, in dictionaries, etc, of an error