And yet despite the careful process, mistakes do sneak in—just ask the editors of the 1934 edition of Webster’s New International Dictionary. In addition to a 3350-page book of more than 600,000 entries, the editors of that edition also gave us something especially delightful: the fake word dord. (Find out how long it would take to read the whole dictionary.)
The word appeared on page 771, between Dorcopsis (a type of small kangaroo) and doré (golden in color), as a noun meaning density in the fields of Physics and Chemistry, according to Snopes.
So how did it get there? Apparently, one of the major updates for the 1934 edition was to separate abbreviation entries from word entries. Until then, abbreviations, such as lb for pound, appeared in alphabetical order along with all the other words. The editors worked on separating the entries by putting each entry onto a card, and organizing them into piles: one for words, and one for abbreviations. (This is why “pounds” is abbreviated into “lbs” in the first place.)
Unfortunately, the card for the abbreviation “D or d, cont/ density” snuck into the “words” pile, and the “D or d” notation became a single word: “dord, a synonym for density.”
Five years later, an editor took note of the imposter word and began the process of eliminating the word from future editions. However, the word dord continued to appear in other brand’s dictionaries for years after the ordeal.
Want to know exactly what makes a word funny? Here’s what science has to say about why you find the word hablump hilarious.
from Reader's Digest http://ift.tt/2zL3PAf
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