Mystery-Webster - The Elusive Ghost Word

Hey everyone! My name is Vijay, and this is my first blog post. This is the story of how I got into one of my lasting hobbies, lexicography.

Merriam-Webster is not necessarily a household name today, but in the world of lexicography, their dictionaries are considered the gold standard for definitions and usage of words in American English. In fact, they are the leading publisher of linguistic reference works (especially dictionaries) in the United States. Despite their good reputation, however, there are some funky stories throughout Merriam-Webster’s history, inkblots on their almost spotless record.

In the summer of 2012, my family and I went on vacation to a bunch of places featuring my brother’s interests, including photography and old books. The final destination of our trip was the John K. King Used and Rare Books bookstore in Detroit, Michigan. This place was huge. It was filled with gigantic shelves stuffed with books. There were four floors, over a million books, and we had nearly an entire day to explore. Old and rare books were everywhere, and the scent of rotting paper filled the air. There was one book in particular that I was hoping to find: Merriam-Webster’s New International Dictionary, Second Edition, which I learned about on Merriam-Webster's website. Why a dictionary? Keep reading.

When Merriam-Webster published their New International Dictionary, Second Edition (hereafter “W2”) in 1934, it was considered the master of the English language, and was the leading dictionary for many years. However, there was a fake word in that same publication. There was no etymology in the entry, no examples of its usage, and Merriam-Webster had no records, either. “Dord” was a ghost word.

Advertisement for W2. Printed on the last page of M-W's Collegiate Dictionary, 5th Edition, the abridged dictionary based on W2.

How did this happen? On July 31, 1931, Merriam-Webster editors received a slip of paper from Austin M. Patterson, one of their chemistry consultants, with a request to add another definition to the letter “d” as an abbreviation, this one for “density.” As you can see in the image below, it clearly says “D or d.” But in this case, it wasn’t so straightforward. At the time, spaces were needed between all letters of a term being defined. Whoever got a hold of the paper look at the word “or,” and just thought that a space was missing between the “o” and the “r.” They underlined the word with a wavy line, indicating that it was a single word, the pronunciation editor added a pronunciation, and how it missed the etymologist is a mystery.

Image screen taken from: "Ghost Word." Merriam-Webster. Merriam-Webster, n.d. Web. 2 Aug. 2014. <http://www.merriam-webster.com/video/0027-ghostword.html>.

In any case, “dord” happily found its place, a single line of page 771 in W2. The mistake wasn’t noticed in 1939, when an editor marked the original slip “Imperative! Urgent!” calling for a correction in the next printing. Even though the error had been discovered, no plate changes were made until 1947.

Reverse side of paper for "D or d," noting the entry of a "ghost word" into the dictionary.  
Image screen taken from: "Ghost Word." Merriam-Webster. Merriam-Webster, n.d. Web. 2 Aug. 2014. <http://www.merriam-webster.com/video/0027-ghostword.html>.

When I was at the John K. King bookstore, I looked through an entire shelf in the Reference category. None of the dictionaries were W2, and I was disappointed. For a couple hours, I occupied myself with other books on other subjects. It wasn’t until we got to the only cashier that it got interesting. My brother was looking through old postcards, and my parents were just casually browsing through books close by. I was sitting glumly at the table in front of the cashier when I happened upon what looked like a copy of W2. My eyes lit up, and I grabbed it, opened it to the letter D, got to page 771, and there it was! I had found a “dord” dictionary!

I quickly called my mom over and showed it to her. I told her I wanted to buy it, and she told me that if it was being sold for a reasonable price, it was okay. I opened it up and looked on the inside front cover. I was disappointed and knew I wasn’t going to get it. However, my dad was very generous and bought the dictionary for me, despite the hefty price tag of $100.

Dictionary Stats and Facts
Title:  Merriam-Webster's New International Dictionary, Second Edition
First Published:  1934
ISBN:  none
My Copy Printed:  1942
Pages:  3210
Purchased:  June 15, 2012

Below are images of the dictionary and the historic piece of paper responsible for the creation of the ghost word “dord.”

Front cover of W2.

Indexed edges.

Spine.

Title page.

Bio of Noah Webster, who created the first dictionaries under his name.

Original paper requesting "D or d" to be defined as "density."
Image screen taken from: "Ghost Word." Merriam-Webster. Merriam-Webster, n.d. Web. 2 Aug. 2014. <http://www.merriam-webster.com/video/0027-ghostword.html>.

Page 771 of W2. This is one of the dictionary's 1150 pages.

Entry for "dord."

Webster's portrait and signature honor him in early M-W dictionaries.

I plan to write about my interests on this blog, and all of the interesting lexical anecdotes of American English that I have discovered in the last two years.

Hope you enjoyed this post. Be sure to tune in later for more!

Vijay