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A ghost word is a word published in a dictionary or similarly authoritative reference work, having rarely, if ever, been used in practice, and hitherto having been meaningless (for example "kime" or "abacot" (compare "bycoket")).〔Skeat, Walter William; Presidential address on 'Ghost-Words' in: 'Transactions of the Philological Society, 1885-7, pages 343-374'; Published for the society by Trübner & Co., Ludgate Hill, London, 1887. May be downloaded at: http://archive.org/details/transact188500philuoft〕 As a rule a ghost word will have originated from an error, such as a misinterpretation, mispronunciation, misreading, or from typographical or linguistic confusion. Once authoritatively published, a ghost word occasionally may be copied widely and take a long time to be erased from usage (if it ever does) (e.g. "morse", as described below). ==Origin of the term== The term ghost words was coined and originally presented in public by Professor Walter William Skeat in his annual address as president of the Philological Society in 1886.〔 He said in part: :Of all the work which the Society has at various times undertaken, none has ever had so much interest for us, collectively, as the New English Dictionary. Dr Murray, as you will remember, wrote on one occasion a most able article, in order to justify himself in omitting from the Dictionary the word abacot, defined by Webster as "the cap of state formerly used by English kings, wrought into the figure of two crowns". It was rightly and wisely rejected by our Editor on the ground that there is no such word, the alleged form being due to a complete mistake ... due to the blunders of printers or scribes, or to the perfervid imaginations of ignorant or blundering editors. ... :I propose, therefore, to bring under your notice a few more words of the abacot type; words which will come under our Editor's notice in course of time, and which I have little doubt that he will reject. As it is convenient to have a short name for words of this character, ''I shall take leave to call them "ghost-words." ... I only allow the title of ghost-words to such words, or rather forms, as have no meaning whatever.'' (Emphasis not present in the original). :...I can adduce at least two that are somewhat startling. The first is kime... The original ... appeared in the Edinburgh Review for 1808. " The Hindoos... have some very savage customs... Some swing on hooks, some run kimes through their hands..." It turned out that "kimes" was a misprint for "knives", but the word gained currency for some time. A more drastic example followed, also cited in Skeat's address:〔Wheatley, Henry Benjamin; Literary Blunders; A Chapter in the “History of Human Error”; Publisher: Elliot Stock, London 1893〕 :A similar instance occurs in a misprint of a passage of one of Scott's novels, but here there is the further amusing circumstance that the etymology of the false word was settled to the satisfaction of some of the readers. In the majority of editions of ''The Monastery'', we read: ... dost thou so soon morse thoughts of slaughter?'' :This word is nothing but a misprint of ''nurse''; but in ''Notes and Queries'' two independent correspondents accounted for the word ''morse'' etymologically. One explained it as ''to prime'', as when one primes a musket, from O. Fr. ''amorce'', powder for the touchhole (Cotgrave), and the other by ''to bite'' (Lat. ''mordere''), hence "to indulge in biting, stinging or gnawing thoughts of slaughter". The latter writes: "That the word as a misprint should have been printed and read by millions for fifty years without being challenged and altered exceeds the bounds of probability." Yet when the original manuscript of Sir Walter Scott was consulted, it was found that the word was there plainly written ''nurse''. One example of such an edition of "The Monastery" was published by the Edinburgh University Press in 1820.〔Scott, Walter. The Monastery. Chapter 10, page 156. Published by Edinburgh University Press. 1820. May be downloaded from: http://archive.org/details/monasteryaroman00scotgoog〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「ghost word」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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