遇见不认识的单词，我们首先会想到查字典。但是如果你不知道“dord”的意思，不要在字典里找答案，除非你拥有1934年的第二版《韦氏新国际词典》。
实际上，“dord”仅在这版的韦氏词典里出现过，这类词汇在英语中还有一个特殊的名字——“ghost words”，直译成中文就是“鬼词”。听起来阴森森的，但其实“鬼词”和妖魔鬼怪毫无关系。文章源自西贝博客-https://qinghe.me/what-are-ghost-words.html
Coined by philologist Walter William Skeat in 1886, ghost words are often the result of misreadings and typographical errors.文章源自西贝博客-https://qinghe.me/what-are-ghost-words.html
1886年，语言学家沃尔特·威廉·斯盖特创造了“鬼词”这种说法，通常指被看错或印刷错误的单词。文章源自西贝博客-https://qinghe.me/what-are-ghost-words.html
The Oxford Dictionary defines ghost word as “a word recorded in a dictionary or other reference work which is not actually used.” Merriam-Webster says a ghost word is “a word form never in established usage.”文章源自西贝博客-https://qinghe.me/what-are-ghost-words.html
《牛津词典》将“鬼词”定义为“记录在词典或其他参考文献中但未实际使用过的词”。韦氏词典称，“鬼词”指“从未使用过的单词形式”。文章源自西贝博客-https://qinghe.me/what-are-ghost-words.html
有时，一些字典会故意录入鬼词作为“防伪标志”，这样的词汇还有一个名称：nihilartikel。文章源自西贝博客-https://qinghe.me/what-are-ghost-words.html
Nihilartikels are deliberately phony words included to ward off would-be plagiarists.文章源自西贝博客-https://qinghe.me/what-are-ghost-words.html
Nihilartikel是指为了防止有人剽窃而故意编造的假词。文章源自西贝博客-https://qinghe.me/what-are-ghost-words.html
下面来看看曾出现在《牛津词典》和《韦氏词典》里的5个“鬼词”：文章源自西贝博客-https://qinghe.me/what-are-ghost-words.html
Dord
Dord is perhaps the most famous of the ghost words. First appearing in the 1934 second edition of Webster’s New International Dictionary, dord was said to mean “density.”文章源自西贝博客-https://qinghe.me/what-are-ghost-words.html
Dord是最有名的“鬼词”。第一次出现在1934年的第二版《韦氏新国际词典》中，指“密度”的意思。
The phantom phrase hung out until 1939, when an editor finally noticed its lack of etymology. He checked the files and found the original slip: "D or d, cont/ density,” which was actually referring to abbreviations using the letter D. At the time, words to be entered in the dictionary were typed with spaces between letters so “d or d” might have been interpreted as “d o r d.”
这个虚幻的单词一直流传到1939年，当时一位编辑终于注意到它缺乏词源。这位编辑检查了文档，发现原稿是：“D or（或） d，cont/density”，实际上是指使用字母D的缩写。当时，字典里的单词在字母之间有空格，所以“d or d”可能被理解为“dord”
Despite having proved its non-existence, it would take until 1947 before Webster’s pages were dord-free.
尽管这个词是不存在的，但直到1947年，《韦氏词典》才将其删除。
Abacot
Abacot made its debut in the second edition of Holinshed’s Chronicles, edited by Abraham Fleming and published in 1587. It then found its way into Spelman’s Glossarium (1664), and every major dictionary since. Almost 300 years later, James Murray, the primary editor of the Oxford English Dictionary (OED), discovered that the wordy wraith was actually a misprint of bycoket, a cap or head-dress.
Abacot首次出现在由亚伯拉罕·弗莱明编写并于1587年出版的《霍林什德编年史》第二版中。随后，这个词在1664年被收录进斯佩尔曼的词汇库，并出现在此后的每一部主要词典中。近300年后，《牛津英语词典》主编詹姆斯·默里发现，这个“鬼词”实际上是bycoket的印刷错误。Bycoket表示帽子或头饰。
By then, abacot had taken on a life of its own, referring to not just any cap but a “Cap of State, made like a double crown, worn anciently by the Kings of England.”
此时，abacot已经有了更多含义，不仅指帽子，还指“古代英格兰国王佩戴的国王帽，形似双层王冠。”
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