The Word DORD on This Day in History

 

This Day in History: The erroneous word "dord" was discovered in the Webster's New International Dictionary, Second Edition, on this day in 1939, prompting an investigation. Dord was not the only ghost word to appear in reference works over the years. Over 400 years ago the word ABACOT appeared which eventually was discovered to be a misprint of bycoket, a cap or head-dress. In Webster’s 1864 American Dictionary of the English Language the word PHANTOMNATION presented itself as an “appearance as of a phantom; illusion.” The word MOMBLISHNESS made it into the Oxford English Dictionary defined as "muttering talk." Another word that found its way into the OED was CAIRBOW which was a misreading of "Caribou." ESQUIVALIENCE materialized in the second edition of the New Oxford American Dictionary (NOAD). It means “the willful avoidance of one’s official responsibilities” and I rather like this word. Samuel Johnson’s Dictionary of the English Language, with editions between 1755 and 1785 made the claim that no word began with the letter X. It did insert the word ARSE for the first time however, and it also gave us the made up word ADVENTINE which was defined as “adventitious; that which is extrinsically added.” Other odd entries over the years in reference works are dog-ray, gofish, jimwhiskee, eposculation, Mountweazel, kime, foupe, morse and tantling.

And then there is William Shakespeare, who invented over 1700 words.