How ‘Ghost Words’ Made Their Way Into the Dictionary Due to Misspelling or Messy Handwriting

Dr. Erica Brozovsky of thePBSseriesOtherwords explained how certain words accidentally made their way into the dictionary due to typos, misspellings or messy handwriting. These words are known as ghost words".

Ghost words are words that accidentally made their wayinto the dictionary without having a real usage or meaning. Generally, they come to be becauseof typographical errors or maybe misreading illegible handwriting.

Examples of these ghost words include gravy and syllabus.

For instance, the wordgravy is thought to be a 14th century cookbook misreading which turned the old French grane into grave. ... Like gravy, syllabusis now a legitimate word. But according to the second edition of the Oxford English dictionary,it originated from a misreading of the Greek word sittubas, meaning parchment label or book titleslip. If you've ever tried to read someone's messy handwriting, you can forgive that mistake

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