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Previous Thread Next Thread Print Thread Page 1 of 3 1 2 3 No sich word...? #199763 05/11/11 07:17 AM Joined: May 2011 Posts: 8 South Africa JonRichfield OP stranger OP JonRichfield stranger Joined: May 2011 Posts: 8 South Africa Introducing the word "anomia" WS said i.a. "...there are words for almost everything under the sun (and beyond)." I have encountered a need for a word a couple of times lately. The concept resembles "ghost word", for which I recently provided some material to Wikipedia, but it is not identical. Example: an article author used a word "creosite", which looked like a typo for "creosote", and it had a link (albeit nonfunctional) to "creosite" as well. Now, I am fairly advanced in chemical matters, and I found some thousands of hits in Google for "creosite", but most of them looked unconvincing; after all, other people than that author can also create typos. It took over an hour's work before I was confident enough to change the Wikipedia entry to "creosote", because it is very difficult to prove a negative; and it is a very serious matter to alter a correct entry to an error, with only one's own ago for justification. In fact, even now I have a strong suspicion that "creosite" might well be an obsolete variant (there are similar obsolete variants for other substances, such as "benzole" for "benzene" etc), or even a particular grade, like the difference between treacle and molasses. I am still woeking in it, and any comments on that point would also be welcome. Be that as it may, does anyone in forum know of a word for a non-existent word, used in error, looking convincing, (in principle there could easily be such a word as "creosite"; in fact it appears in a book on geology for something totally different (but as far as I can tell, that is a typo for "coesite"!)) but a word that one cannot easily prove to be an error just because it "aint in the dictionary"? If it were an error that had won its way to its own entry in the dictionary, then it would be a true ghost word, but so far it is just a persuasive error that is hard to distinguish from a rarely used technicalism. What should we call such an utterance? "Phantom word"? "Fatuverb"? "Miragon"? (No emoticon for "stumped"? Or "puzzled"? Sorry!) Over to anyone... Jon Jon Copy Link to Clipboard Share Post on Facebook Share Post on Twitter Re: No sich word...? JonRichfield #199765 05/11/11 10:41 AM Joined: Dec 2000 Posts: 13,803 Faldage Carpal Tunnel Faldage Carpal Tunnel Joined: Dec 2000 Posts: 13,803 Or misspelling. Copy Link to Clipboard Share Post on Facebook Share Post on Twitter Re: No sich word...? JonRichfield #199772 05/11/11 03:20 PM Joined: Jun 2008 Posts: 9,944 Likes: 3 Land of the Flat Water LukeJavan8 Carpal Tunnel LukeJavan8 Carpal Tunnel Joined: Jun 2008 Posts: 9,944 Likes: 3 Land of the Flat Water WELCOME JONRICHFIELD ----please, draw me a sheep---- Copy Link to Clipboard Share Post on Facebook Share Post on Twitter Re: No sich word...? JonRichfield #199781 05/11/11 03:52 PM Joined: Apr 2000 Posts: 10,542 this too shall pass tsuwm Carpal Tunnel tsuwm Carpal Tunnel Joined: Apr 2000 Posts: 10,542 this too shall pass ghost word - an accidental word form never in established usage; especially: one arising from an editorial or typographical error or a mistaken pronunciation (as phantomnation or dord) *Webster's New International Dict., 2nd ed. the worthless word for the day is: mountweazel [see quotes] a bogus entry purposely inserted into a reference work: a copyright trap "Turn to page 1,850 of the 1975 edition of the New Columbia Encyclopedia and you'll find an entry for Lillian Virginia Mountweazel, a fountain designer turned photographer.. she never existed." - Henry Alford, The New Yorker Aug. 29, 2005 "And only publishing insiders know that a Mountweazel is "a bogus entry purposely inserted in a dictionary or encyclopedia as a means of protecting copyright."" - William Safire, N.Y. Times Mag. Dec 3, 2006 Copy Link to Clipboard Share Post on Facebook Share Post on Twitter Re: No sich word...? Faldage #199782 05/11/11 04:17 PM Joined: May 2011 Posts: 8 South Africa JonRichfield OP stranger OP JonRichfield stranger Joined: May 2011 Posts: 8 South Africa You have a point of course; misspelling is a major cause, and there is reason to debate whether one should count finger trouble in the same category as a misspelling. That is an open question. Some of the examples I have in mind are misunderstandings (wrong word, valid but incorrect, or even inappropriate in sense or syntax), some are misremembered utterances, misheard pronunciations, misread typography or orthography, or mangled technical terms, such as Collectotriccem gleespohroides, where the perpetrator meant Colletotrichum gloeosporioides. One that still rankles is the modern acceptance of the generic name Crematogaster, in preference to the less appropriate Cremastogaster. I sweated blood settling that one! And so very much on. I have been following up the creosote/creosite matter and have found various versions of acceptance and various of sources of error, ranging from the coesite, to a word of uncertain spelling for various grades of chimney soot. Oh, and a respectable publication mentions creosite as a commercial product, a cheaper version of creosote, marketed in Europe during the early decades of the 20th century. Also, remember that if there is no serious basis for wondering whether the term is valid, no special term would be needed; we could simply call it a mistake. Here we mean a putative mistake, with strong grounds for hesitating about pronouncing that it is indeed a mistake. Oh, and there even appears to some performing group under the name Creosite! I am not sure that I wanted to know that... I think the whole thing goes beyond spelling, though I certainly include spelling, miss, Ms or Mr, as one factor. In fact I am surprised at the rarity of ghost words, given the sheer scope for meme propagation.If all of them were as difficult to nail down as this one, I am sure that we would have them in droves; we would all be conversing in a creole of permanently propagating verbal novelties. The things people fash themselves with...! Jon Copy Link to Clipboard Share Post on Facebook Share Post on Twitter Re: No sich word...? tsuwm #199783 05/11/11 04:38 PM Joined: May 2011 Posts: 8 South Africa JonRichfield OP stranger OP JonRichfield stranger Joined: May 2011 Posts: 8 South Africa Niiiice! Very nice! Thanks for that little lot. Your response sent me doing a bit of surfing; found this site: http://grammar.about.com/od/terms/f/whatisaghostword.htm and was about to refer you to this one anyway: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghost_word I may find myself moved to augment the latter in the light of your contribution. Cheers, Jon Copy Link to Clipboard Share Post on Facebook Share Post on Twitter Re: No sich word...? JonRichfield #199788 05/12/11 12:05 AM Joined: Dec 2000 Posts: 13,803 Faldage Carpal Tunnel Faldage Carpal Tunnel Joined: Dec 2000 Posts: 13,803 I would bet on simple fumble-fingers in your creosote/creosite example. The I and the O are right next to each other on the keyboard and I have certainly hit the one when I was going for the other. Your description of some of the others sounds like it's bordering on eggcorns, but your examples don't look like eggcorns. Copy Link to Clipboard Share Post on Facebook Share Post on Twitter Re: No sich word...? JonRichfield #199792 05/12/11 02:36 AM Joined: Mar 2000 Posts: 11,613 Louisville, Kentucky Jackie Carpal Tunnel Jackie Carpal Tunnel Joined: Mar 2000 Posts: 11,613 Louisville, Kentucky O too have made that mistake; welcome, Jon. Copy Link to Clipboard Share Post on Facebook Share Post on Twitter Re: No sich word...? Jackie #199795 05/12/11 10:34 AM Joined: May 2010 Posts: 963 Alaska Tromboniator old hand Tromboniator old hand Joined: May 2010 Posts: 963 Alaska Noce, Jackoe. Copy Link to Clipboard Share Post on Facebook Share Post on Twitter Re: No sich word...? Jackie #199938 05/19/11 06:21 PM Joined: May 2011 Posts: 8 South Africa JonRichfield OP stranger OP JonRichfield stranger Joined: May 2011 Posts: 8 South Africa Wasn't Otoo a character (actually two characters (or two half characters)) in a JackLondon story? Life is so unnecessarilycomplicated... But I liked your welcome! Thanks, Jon Jon Copy Link to Clipboard Share Post on Facebook Share Post on Twitter Page 1 of 3 1 2 3 Moderated by  Jackie  Hop To General Topics ------  Information and announcements  Q&A about words  Wordplay and fun  Words and languages in schools  Miscellany  Weekly Themes  Looking for (writers, speakers,... (Old) Weekly themes. 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