This word was kind of magically appeared there through pure error.
There's an entire broad category of words which more or less mean something that's really great that used to have distinctly different meanings.
Coming up on Word Matters, a ghost word and a famous linguistic complaint.
I'm Emily Brewster and Word Matters is produced by Merriam-Webster in collaboration with New England Public Media.
On each episode, It's a ghost, or even spookier, a ghost word!
Cue the scary organ music!
I'll tell the tale of how a fake word somehow made it past our editors to haunt the pages of a Merriam-Webster dictionary.
In 1934, the GNC Merriam Company, I believe the name was, at the time released a new dictionary.
It was called Webster's New International Dictionary Second Edition.
It was the culmination of work done by 250 editors and consultants.
It weighed 17 pounds.
It has a six inch binding.
It is the largest book to ever be mass produced.
And within the structure of that dictionary, between those covers,
there was a word that is what we call a ghost word.
It was a word that was not supposed to be there at all.
It was in the Ds, D-O-R-D, with the meaning density.
Was this disapproved of, not supposed to?
Because a lot of people think there are many words that shouldn't be in the dictionary.
Is this in a different manner than that typical one?