| Definition: A word that exists (i.e., is a dictionary entry) because of either a misunderstanding or a copyist's error. |
| Example: willy-nilly for will he nill he |
| Etymology: According to Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable: the term was "invented by the lexicographer W. W. Skeat in 1886 to denote words that are not 'real' words because they have come into existence in error." |
Quotation:
"We should jealously guard against all
chances of giving any undeserved record of words which had never any real existence, being mere coinages due to the blunders of printers or scribes, or to the perfervid imaginations of ignorant or blundering editors."
(Source: W. W. Skeat in Transactions of the Philological Society(1886))
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