遇見(jiàn)不認(rèn)識(shí)的單詞，我們首先會(huì)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，除非你擁有1934年的第二版《韋氏新國(guó)際詞典》。

實(shí)際上，“dord”僅在這版的韋氏詞典里出現(xiàn)過(guò)，這類(lèi)詞匯在英語(yǔ)中還有一個(gè)特殊的名字——“ghost words”，直譯成中文就是“鬼詞”。聽(tīng)起來(lái)陰森森的，但其實(shí)“鬼詞”和妖魔鬼怪毫無(wú)關(guān)系。

Coined by philologist Walter William Skeat in 1886, ghost words are often the result of misreadings and typographical errors.
1886年，語(yǔ)言學(xué)家沃爾特·威廉·斯蓋特創(chuàng)造了“鬼詞”這種說(shuō)法，通常指被看錯(cuò)或印刷錯(cuò)誤的單詞。

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.”
《牛津詞典》將“鬼詞”定義為“記錄在詞典或其他參考文獻(xiàn)中但未實(shí)際使用過(guò)的詞”。韋氏詞典稱(chēng)，“鬼詞”指“從未使用過(guò)的單詞形式”。

有時(shí)，一些字典會(huì)故意錄入鬼詞作為“防偽標(biāo)志”，這樣的詞匯還有一個(gè)名稱(chēng)：nihilartikel。

Nihilartikels are deliberately phony words included to ward off would-be plagiarists.
Nihilartikel是指為了防止有人剽竊而故意編造的假詞。

下面來(lái)看看曾出現(xiàn)在《牛津詞典》和《韋氏詞典》里的5個(gè)“鬼詞”：

1. 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.”
Dord是最有名的“鬼詞”。第一次出現(xiàn)在1934年的第二版《韋氏新國(guó)際詞典》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.”
這個(gè)虛幻的單詞一直流傳到1939年，當(dāng)時(shí)一位編輯終于注意到它缺乏詞源。這位編輯檢查了文檔，發(fā)現(xiàn)原稿是：“D or（或） d，cont/density”，實(shí)際上是指使用字母D的縮寫(xiě)。當(dāng)時(shí)，字典里的單詞在字母之間有空格，所以“d or d”可能被理解為“dord”

Despite having proved its non-existence, it would take until 1947 before Webster’s pages were dord-free.
盡管這個(gè)詞是不存在的，但直到1947年，《韋氏詞典》才將其刪除。

2. 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首次出現(xiàn)在由亞伯拉罕·弗萊明編寫(xiě)并于1587年出版的《霍林什德編年史》第二版中。隨后，這個(gè)詞在1664年被收錄進(jìn)斯佩爾曼的詞匯庫(kù)，并出現(xiàn)在此后的每一部主要詞典中。近300年后，《牛津英語(yǔ)詞典》主編詹姆斯·默里發(fā)現(xiàn)，這個(gè)“鬼詞”實(shí)際上是bycoket的印刷錯(cuò)誤。Bycoket表示帽子或頭飾。

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.”
此時(shí)，abacot已經(jīng)有了更多含義，不僅指帽子，還指“古代英格蘭國(guó)王佩戴的國(guó)王帽，形似雙層王冠?！?/p>

3. PHANTOMNATION

A ghostly word in more than one way, phantomnation was defined by Webster’s 1864 American Dictionary of the English Language as an “appearance as of a phantom; illusion,” and was attributed to Alexander Pope’s translation of The Odyssey:
Phantomnation是一個(gè)名副其實(shí)的“鬼詞”。1864年出版的《韋氏美語(yǔ)詞典》將“phantomnation”定義為“鬼魂；幻覺(jué)”，并將其歸因于亞歷山大·波普對(duì)《奧德賽》的翻譯：

“These solemn vows and holy offerings paid
“這些莊嚴(yán)的誓言和神圣的祭品已經(jīng)兌現(xiàn)

To all the phantomnations of the dead.”
致所有死者的鬼魂?！?/p>

The real word? The no less creepy phantom-nation, a society of specters. We can blame scholar Richard Paul Jodrell for this gaffe, who, in his book The Philology of the English Language, left out hyphens in compound words.
這里正確的原文是phantom-nation（幽靈國(guó)家），一個(gè)同樣令人毛骨悚然的幽靈社會(huì)。這個(gè)錯(cuò)誤是學(xué)者理查德·保羅·約德雷爾制造的，他在《英語(yǔ)語(yǔ)言學(xué)》一書(shū)中將這個(gè)復(fù)合詞的連字符省略了。

4. CAIRBOW

The curious cairbow was mentioned in an early 20th-century proof of the OED in an example sentence of “glare”: “It [the Cairbow] then suddenly squats upon its haunches, and slides along the glare-ice.”
20世紀(jì)初出版的《牛津英語(yǔ)詞典》中，“glare”的例句中提到了“好奇的cairbow”：
“它（cairbow）突然蹲坐下來(lái)，沿著刺眼的冰面滑行?！?br>

Cairbow? No one had heard of such thing. Was it some kind of polar creature with an affinity for ice? Did it have a big rainbow on its back?
Cairbow？沒(méi)人聽(tīng)說(shuō)過(guò)這個(gè)詞。它是某種喜歡冰的極地生物嗎？它的背上有一道大彩虹嗎？

Nope. Cairbow was merely a misreading of caribou.
不，cairbow只是拼寫(xiě)錯(cuò)誤的caribou（馴鹿）。

5. ESQUIVALIENCE

The one faker by design, this spurious term, meaning “the willful avoidance of one’s official responsibilities,” materialized in the second edition of the New Oxford American Dictionary (NOAD).
這是一個(gè)故意編造的假詞，意思是“故意逃避自己的職責(zé)”，出現(xiàn)在《新牛津美語(yǔ)詞典》第二版中。

The word was invented by Christine Lindberg, one of the NOAD editors. The whole thing was part of the dictionary’s strategy for copyright protection.
這個(gè)詞是由《新牛津美語(yǔ)詞典》的編輯克里斯汀·林德伯格發(fā)明的。此舉是該詞典的一種版權(quán)保護(hù)策略。

來(lái)源：Grammarly，Mental Floss
編輯：董靜